LAWRENCE  J.  GUTTER 

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THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   ILLINOIS 
AT  CHICAGO 


The  University  Library 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 


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DSKI'II    KDWIX   It(»Y. 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 


1827-1908 


A  FAITHFUL  SERVANT  OF  GOD  AND  OF 
HIS  OWN  GENERATION 


A  BRIEF  BIOGRAPHY  BY 

WILLIAM  E.  BARTON.  D.  D, 

WITH  TRIBUTES  FROM  SOME  OF  THOSE  WHO  KNEW  HIM 


PURITAN    PRESS 

OAK  PARK.  ILL. 

1908 


CONTENTS. 


A  SKETCH  OF  THE  LIFE  OF  JOSEPH  E.  KOY,  D.  D. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  His  Eaely  Life 7 

n.  The  Pilgrim  Pastor 12 

IIL  With  the  American  Missionary  Association 22 

IV.  A  Man  of  Vision 35 

V.  The  Golden  Wedding 38 

VI.  The  Sunset  and  the  Afterglow 43 


ADDRESSES  AT  THE  FUNEEAL. 

VII.    An  American  Without  Guile 49 

Rev.  Frank  N.  White,  D.  D. 

VIII.    As  His  College  Remembers  Him 59 

Pres.  Thomas  McClelland,  President  of  Knox 
College. 

IX.    A  Friend  of  Humanity 54 

Rev.  Charles  A.  Ryder,  D.  D.,  Secretary  of  the 
A.  M.  A. 

X.    A  Servant  of  God  and  of  His  Generation 61 

Rev.  William  E.  Barton,  D.  D. 


TRIBUTES  TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  DR.  ROY. 

XI.    As  A  Man  and  a  Minister 68 

Rev.  F.  A.  Noble,  D.  D.,  at  Chicago  Ministers' 
Union. 

HI.    As  the  Churches  Knew  Him 76 

Rev.  Simeon  Gilbert,  D.  D.,  at  Chicago  Congre- 
gational Association. 
5 


6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIII.  As  A  Man  Among  his  Fellowmen 84 

Eev.  A.  N.  Hitchcock,  D.  D.,  at  Chicago  Con- 
gregational Club. 

XIV.  As  Home  Missionary  Superintendent 87 

Eev.  George  T.  MeCoUum,  for  the  Illinois 
Home  Missionary  Society, 

XV.    A  Patriot  and  the  Son  of  Patriots 89 

The  Illinois  Society  Sons  of  the  American 
Eevolution. 

XVI,  A  Tribute  from  the  Southland 94 

XVII.  Other  Tributes  96 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY,  D.  D. 


A  SKETCH  OF  HIS  LIFE. 

I.      HIS  EAELY  LIFE. 

Joseph  Edwin  Roy  was  born  in  Martinsburg, 
Ohio,  February  7,  1827,  and  died  in  Oak  Park, 
111.,  March  4,  1908.  He  was  the  son  of  John  Roy, 
a  man  of  strong  character,  who  later  became  a 
pioneer  merchant  in  the  Rock  River  town  of  Lyn- 
don. The  family  was  of  Huguenot  descent  and 
sprang  from  Joseph  Roy,  who  fled  from  persecu- 
tion and  came  to  Boston  in  1711,  and  afterward 
lived  in  New  Jersey.  With  this  first  Joseph  came 
a  young  son  John,  who  became  an  influential  citi- 
zen in  New  Jersey,  and  was  known  as  "Judge 
Roy.**  He  was  a  magistrate  in  colonial  days,  and 
more  than  one  of  his  five  sons,  among  them  Jo- 
seph, the  great-grandfather  of  Joseph  Edwin, 
fought  in  the  Revolution.  On  his  mother's  side 
also,  Dr.  Roy  was  of  Revolutionary  descent,  being 
a  great-grandson  of  Joseph  Davis,  a  soldier  from 

7 


8  JOSEPH  EDWIN  HOY 

Connecticut  Farms,  New  York.  The  family  was 
marked  by  enterprise,  patriotism,  religions  earn- 
estness and  stability  of  purpose. 

John  Roy  lived  an  active  life  at  Lyndon,  and  his 
son  Joseph  shared  with  him  in  the  vicissitudes 
and  varieties  of  pioneer  experience  on  the  prair- 
ies. The  father  was  not  only  a  merchant  but 
hotel  keeper  and  county  clerk.  He  was  active 
in  public  affairs,  and,  even  in  that  early  day,  was 
a  temperance  man  and  an  abolitionist.  He  had 
been  a  school  teacher,  and  his  children  inherited 
a  love  of  learning.  He  had  been  a  Presbyterian, 
but  the  church  at  Lyndon  was  Congregational, 
and  he  and  his  wife  joined  it,  and  there  the  son 
Joseph  had  his  nurture  in  the  Christian  life. 

It  was  late  in  the  fall  of  1841  that  he  consciously 
entered  the  Christian  life.  He  was  then  a  boy  of 
fourteen  years,  and  was  a  clerk  in  his  father's 
store,  at  Lyndon.  His  mother,  whose  maiden 
name  was  Elvira  Davis,  died  in  his  early  child- 
hood ;  and  his  father  married,  in  1839,  Martha  J. 
Foster.  She  was  of  New  England  descent,  and 
had  been  a  school  teacher;  and  she  proved  a  good 
mother  to  her  husband's  children.  It  was  a  time 
of  great  agitations.  The  temperance  movement 
was  rising  over  the  land,  and  the  anti-slavery 
meetings  were  popular,  and  religious  revivals  fol- 
lowing the  panic  of  1837  swept  through  the  new 
settlements.    Dr.  Eoy  looked  back  upon  his  boy- 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  9 

hood  life  in  that  frontier  village,  and  said:  ''I 
have  often  thought  it  a  great  Providential  favor 
that  I  was  taken  out  of  the  highly  conservative 
atmosphere  in  Ohio,  and  set  down  in  a  place 
where  the  air  was  charged  with  revival  and 
reform  ideas.*' 

In  the  summer  of  1840,  he  was  much  moved  in 
a  revival  meeting  conducted  by  an  evangelist 
named  Gallagher;  and  the  following  summer, 
learning  that  a  session  of  the  presbytery,  which 
was  to  be  held  with  the  Congregational  church 
at  Lyndon,  was  to  be  followed  by  protracted 
meetings,  he  agreed  with  himself  in  advance  to 
make  that  the  time  to  become  a  Christian,  but 
let  the  time  go  by.  Some  weeks  of  struggle  fol- 
lowed, during  which  the  step-mother  and  an  aunt 
pleaded  with  him — the  father  being  then  absent 
on  a  journey  to  Ohio — and  at  length,  by  his  own 
fireside,  he  confessed  his  faith  in  Christ,  in  a 
covenant  which  lasted  through  the  years.  The 
next  night,  in  a  young  people's  meeting,  he  made 
his  public  confession;  and  at  the  January  com- 
munion of  the  Lyndon  church,  in  1842,  he  entered 
into  fellowship  with  the  Church. 

Almost  immediately  he  decided  to  go  into  the 
ministry.  The  thought  was  suggested  to  him  by 
his  aunt,  whom  he  looked  upon  as  his  spiritual 
mother.  His  father  concurred  in  the  plan,  and 
Mr.  Hazard,  the  pastor  of  the  church,  encouraged 


10  JOSEPH  EDWIN  KOY 

it ;  and,  almost  before  the  boy  knew  it,  a  boarding 
place  had  been  secured  for  him  in  the  academy 
at  Geneseo,  Illinois.  He  attended  that  school 
nine  months,  working  for  his  board,  sawing 
wood,  milking  cows,  taking  care  of  the  horses, 
and  in  the  summer  time  caring  for  the  garden. 
He  hauled  lumber  and  worked  as  a  carpenter, 
and  mingled  adventures  of  labor  and  travel  with 
his  lessons  in  Latin  and  Greek.  He  broke  down 
in  his  first  public  declamation,  but  continued  to 
practice  speaking  in  public;  and,  on  the  Fourth 
of  July,  1844,  at  a  public  celebration,  he  read  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  On  the  very  next 
day  he  started  on  horseback  to  Galesburg,  to 
enter  college.  He  forded  the  Green  river  on  his 
way,  and  entered  Galesburg  in  mud  so  deep  that 
he  had  to  leave  the  road  and  go  through  a  field. 
Knox  College  was  in  its  infancy.  He  boarded 
in  a  club,  in  which  each  boy  furnished  his  share 
of  the  provisions,  and  the  matron  charged  them 
25  cents  a  week  for  cooking  and  serving.  In  the 
latter  part  of  his  college  course  he  secured  board 
at  the  rate  of  $1  a  week  in  cash,  or  $1.12  if  he 
paid  in  provisions.  He  worked  through  his  vaca- 
tions in  the  hay  field  or  the  wagon  shop,  and  in 
term  time  he  sawed  wood,  hoed  in  gardens,  and 
performed  manual  labor  with  the  other  young 
men  of  the  school.     Such  work  was  common  to 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  11 

boys  getting  an  education  in  those  days,  and  it 
made  strong  men. 

While  in  college  he  was  a  charter  member  of 
the  Adelphi  Society  and  practiced  public  speak- 
ing. He  records  of  himself  that  he  was  a  "quiet, 
retiring  youth,  little  given  to  social  life, ' '  though 
already  he  had  formed  his  acquaintance  with 
Emily  Stearns  Hatch,  whom  later  he  was  to 
marry.  He  playfully  records  that  he  could  not 
have  been  lower  down  in  his  class  than  number 
four,  as  there  were  only  three  other  members  in 
the  class. 

Following  his  graduation,  he  returned  to  his 
boyhood  home  in  Lyndon,  where  he  taught  a 
public  school.  It  was  a  large  school,  and  most 
of  the  time  he  required  an  assistant.  He  had  a 
few  pupils  in  Latin  and  in  Greek  as  well  as  those 
in  the  common  branches,  and  occasionally  he 
preached  in  some  of  the  settlements  not  far  from 
his  boyhood  home.  He  considered  for  a  time  the 
question  of  devoting  his  life  to  teaching,  but  held 
to  his  purpose  to  enter  the  ministry,  and  saved 
his  money  for  a  course  of  study  in  the  theological 
seminary. 

On  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth 
of  his  father,  July  31,  1898,  Dr.  Roy  published  a 
memorial  booklet  entitled,  ''Honor  Thy  Father." 
In  it  he  told  the  story  of  his  childhood  home,  and 
of  the  sturdy  and  honest  pioneer  who  made  that 


12  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

home  on  the  Illinois  prairies.  He  also  paid  a 
warm  tribute  to  the  mother  of  his  childhood,  and 
to  the  step-mother,  whom  also  he  loved.  In  this 
he  took  occasion  to  rebuke  the  unjust  and  cruel 
sentiment  that  allows  step-mothers  to  be  made 
the  butt  of  mirth  and  reproach.    He  said: 

''I  have  made  quite  a  close  study  of  this  mat- 
ter, and  the  mass  of  foster-mothers,  as  I  have 
observed  them,  have  been  noble,  self-forgetting, 
faithful  and  loving." 

It  is  good  to  know  that  in  that  home  no  bitter- 
ness came  with  the  second  mother;  that  the  two 
sets  of  children  grew  up  as  one  family;  and  that 
lifelong  memories  which  he  cherished  were  happy 
and  inspiring. 

II.      THE  PILGRIM  PASTOR. 

In  September,  1850,  Joseph  E.  Eoy  took  the 
stage  from  his  father's  door  for  Chicago.  At  St. 
Charles,  the  western  terminus,  he  transferred  to 
the  Northwestern  railroad  and  traveled  on  it  to 
the  city.  It  was  his  first  sight  of  a  locomotive. 
From  Chicago  he  crossed  the  lake  by  steamer, 
and,  partly  by  rail  and  partly  by  the  Hudson, 
he  made  his  exhilarating  journey  to  New  York. 
During  his  seminary  course  he  preached  at  times 
in  the  prison  at  BlackwelPs  Island,  and  also 
occasionally  in  the  almshouse,  and  during  the  last 
six  months  for  a  colored  Presbyterian  church  in 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  BOY  13 

Brooklyn.  He  was  graduated  from  college  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one,  but  on  account  of  his  two 
years'  teaching  was  twenty-five  when  he  left 
the  theological  seminary  and  returned  to  work 
in  his  native  State. 

His  Eastern  experience  had  done  much  for 
him;  it  had  broadened  his  outlook;  had  enabled 
him  to  hear  eminent  preachers,  among  the  rest, 
Henry  Ward  Beecher ;  had  brought  him  into  touch 
with  large  national  movements,  and  sent  him 
back  to  his  own  State  well  equipped  for  service. 
Already  the  lines  of  his  life  work  were  laid  down, 
and  he  was  being  led  in  many  ways  whose  desti- 
nation he  knew  not. 

The  week  of  his  graduation  from  Union  Theo- 
logical Seminary  in  June,  1853,  was  a  strenuous 
one.  He  delivered  his  graduating  address  in  New 
York,  and  hastened  to  Chicago,  where  on  the  fol- 
lowing Sunday  he  preached  in  the  First  and 
Plymouth  Churches.  The  frame  building  of  the 
First  Church  burned  down  that  night  and  he 
barely  saved  his  sermon,  and  that  with  some 
scorching  of  its  edges.  Plymouth  heard  him  with 
an  interest  which  was  not  satisfied  till  two  years 
later  he  became  its  pastor.  Turning  from  the 
smoking  embers  of  First  Church  on  Monday  he 
went  by  train  to  La  Salle;  thence  by  steamer  to 
Peoria ;  then  by  carriage  to  Farmington,  where  he 
married  Miss  Emily  Stearns  Hatch,  whom  he  had 


14  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

known  in  Knox  College.  The  two  hurried  across 
to  Galesburg,  where  he  delivered  his  master's 
oration,  and  rolled  up  his  new  diploma,  Master  of 
Arts  with  his  marriage  certificate.  Then  the 
young  couple  drove  seventy-five  miles  to  the  old 
home  at  Lyndon,  which  they  reached  within  little 
more  than  a  week  after  his  graduation  in  New 
York.  That  was  fast  time  for  those  days,  and 
it  was  a  pace  which  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Roy  kept  up  for 
many  years. 

For  fifty-five  years  these  two  servants  of  God 
wrought  together.  Often  she  "tarried  with  the 
stuff"  while  he  went  to  and  fro,  performing  the 
varied  duties  that  fell  to  him  as  pioneer  pastor, 
and  later  as  secretary.  And  she  survives  him, 
serene  in  the  faith  which  they  shared  so  long, 
the  faith  in  which  he  lived  and  died. 

Dr.  Roy's  marriage  was  celebrated  June  21, 
1853.  The  year  was  full  of  dates  recorded  in  a 
book  which  he  left  for  his  children  and  grand- 
children. He  was  licensed  by  the  New  York  and 
Brooklyn  Association  April  6,  1853,  and  he  was 
one  of  six  who  were  chosen  out  of  a  class  of 
twenty-six  to  speak  at  his  graduation  on  June 
15.  His  subject  was  "Christianity — Progressive 
and  Conservative."  He  recorded  that  it  "made 
the  faculty  squirm  a  little,"  for  it  was  somewhat 
advanced  in  doctrine  and  contained  some  of  his 
views  against  slavery.    His  first  pastorate  was 


REV.    JOSEPH   E.    ROY,    AGED   58. 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  15 

in  Brimfield,  111.,  where  he  began  work  September 
1,  1853,  in  a  church  then  under  the  care  of  the 
American  Missionary  Association,  a  pastorate 
prophetic  of  his  life  work.  There  he  completed 
a  church  building  and  tested  the  theories  which 
he  had  formed,  among  the  rest  his  anti-slavery 
theories ;  for  on  Sunday,  April  11,  1854,  he  prayed 
publicly  for  the  wanderer  and  the  outcast,  and 
that  night  a  fugitive  slave  wakened  him  with  a 
plea  for  shelter.  He  kept  the  fugitive,  and  next 
night  took  him  on  his  way  in  his  own  buggy.  He 
had  frequent  occasion  to  do  like  acts  in  later 
years. 

At  the  end  of  two  years  he  accepted  a  call  to 
the  pastorate  of  Plymouth  Church,  Chicago.  We 
are  fortunate  in  knowing  what  he  preached;  for 
a  year  after  his  installation  he  delivered  a  sermon 
on  the  text,  **Now  of  the  things  which  we  have 
spoken  this  is  the  sum,"  in  which  he  reviewed 
the  preaching  of  the  year;  and  it  was  a  year  of 
strong  and  clear  theology  of  what  was  then  new 
school,  and  a  year  of  instruction  in  love  for  hu- 
manity; for  he  taught  his  people  to  vote  for  abo- 
lition, and  rejoiced  that  in  the  year  1856  Chicago 
had  gone  on  record  in  favor  of  freedom.  In 
summing  up  the  effects  of  his  work  he  drew  his 
pen  through  a  line  that  spoke  of  the  influence  of 
his  sermons  **at  the  ballot-box,"  but  the  spirit 
of  it  was  diffused  in  the  sermon. 


16  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

More  than  that  of  any  other  man,  excepting 
possibly  his  friend,  Bev.  G.  S.  F.  Savage,  the 
life  of  Eev.  Dr.  Joseph  E.  Eoy  was  identified  with 
the  whole  work  of  the  Congregational  Churches 
in  Illinois  and  adjacent  states.  Dr.  Eoy's  life 
since  1839  has  been  closely  related  to  the  life  of 
this  state;  for  it  was  in  that  year  that  he  came, 
a  child  of  twelve,  to  the  new  home  established  by 
his  father  at  Lyndon,  on  Rock  River.  Entering 
the  ministry  here  in  1853,  when  Chicago  Associa- 
tion was  only  a  year  old,  he  shared  the  whole  of 
the  development  of  our  church  life  from  that  early 
time  to  the  larger  achievements  of  these  later 
years.  All  of  this  he  saw,  and  a  part  of  it  he 
was. 

Early  in  his  travels  in  the  ministry,  for  from 
the  first  he  was  a  traveler.  Dr.  Roy  began  his 
"Pilgrim  Letters,"  which,  more  than  any  other 
agency  in  their  day,  interpreted  the  progress  of 
the  churches  of  the  interior  to  the  centers  of  de- 
nominational strength  in  the  East.  A  stalwart 
Puritan,  and  a  staunch  believer  in  democracy, 
he  loved  the  name  ** Pilgrim,*'  and  his  life  work 
became  a  pilgrimage. 

In  order  to  understand  the  Congregational 
movement  in  Illinois  at  that  period,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  remember  something  of  national  events, 
and  the  relation  of  these  to  church  life.  In  1801 
the  Congregational  Churches  of  Connecticut  en- 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOT  17 

tered  into  a  Plan  of  Union  with  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  for  work 
in  the  new  settlements.  It  was  a  plan  conceived 
in  the  most  generous  spirit  on  both  sides,  but 
each  side  had  ample  occasion  to  repent  of  it.  As 
for  the  Presbyterians,  it  cost  them  much  of  trial 
through  the  ''New  School"  theology,  to  which 
the  Congregationalists  generally  adhered;  and 
the  Congregationalists  remember  it  as  having  lost 
to  them  a  large  number  of  churches,  many  of 
which  are  now  strong,  which  through  affiliation 
with  Presbytery  became  Presbyterian. 

Two  sets  of  causes  tended  to  the  final  abroga- 
tion of  this  plan.  One  was  the  demand  for  more 
liberty  of  doctrine  on  the  part  of  the  New  School. 
The  other  was  the  growing  protest  against  com- 
plicity with  slave  holding  churches.  While 
Joseph  E.  Eoy  was  a  student  in  theology  in  New 
York,  these  relations  approached  a  crisis.  It 
was  the  renaissance  of  Congregationalism,  find- 
ing its  new  birth  in  its  love  of  freedom.  Dr.  Eoy 
has  written  of  this  period: 

**In  1852,  October  5-8,  as  a  student  from  Union 
Seminary,  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  I  attended  a  general 
convention  of  Congregationalists  which  has  en- 
tered into  our  church  nomenclature  as  'The 
Albany  Convention,'  which  numbered  469  mem- 
bers from  all  parts  of  the  east  and  west.  This 
Convention  had  for  its  procuring  cause  the  ques- 


18  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

tion  whether  eastern  Congregationalists  would 
fellowship  with  those  of  the  west.  The  Plan  of 
Union  was  completely  annulled.  When  the  east- 
ern people  came  to  confer  with  their  western 
brethren  they  warmed  up  on  finding  they  were  of 
their  own  sort.  And  so  James,  Cephas  and  John, 
who  seemed  to  be  pillars,  gave  to  the  men  of  the 
west  the  right  hand  of  fellowship. 

**  About  this  time  there  came  up  another  in- 
fluence that  worked  strongly  toward  the  reaction 
in  favor  of  the  Congregational  way.  It  was  the 
rising  tide  of  anti-slavery  sentiment  which  called 
for  opportunity  to  bear  organic  witness  against 
complicity  with  the  iniquities  of  slave  holding. 
The  Presbyterian  Church  was  conservative  and 
could  not  speak  out  either  in  individual  churches 
or  minor  ecclesiastical  bodies  until  the  great 
wheel  of  the  General  Assembly  should  come 
around  in  its  revolution.  But  with  the  Congre- 
gational system  local  churches  and  minor  asso- 
ciations, conferences  and  conventions  could  act 
at  once  without  waiting  for  any  other  logy  body 
to  take  the  lead  or  to  fall  in.  In  this  way  the 
more  pronounced  anti-slaveryism  of  the  Congre- 
gational Churches  could  get  in  its  testimony  and 
secure  a  church  life  that  would  be  effective  at 
once  in  its  bearing  upon  the  monster  national 
crime.  By  this  characteristic  constitutional  dif- 
ference the  Congregational  Churches  found  them- 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  19 

selves  on  the  slavery  issue  far  out  of  the  woods 
a  long  time  before  the  Presbyterian  got  through. 
Such  had  been  the  leavening  influence  upon  that 
issue  in  our  scattered  local  churches  that  when 
they  came  together  in  our  Ecumenical  Council, 
the  Albany  Convention,  in  1852,  on  the  subject 
of  missionary  aid  to  churches  in  slave-holding 
states,  the  action  of  469  delegates  brought  to- 
gether in  this  orderly  way  was  absolutely  unani- 
mous, as  follows: 

"  'Resolved,  that  in  the  opinion  of  this  Con- 
vention, it  is  the  tendency  of  the  Gospel,  wher- 
ever it  is  preached  in  its  purity,  to  correct  all 
social  evils,  and  to  destroy  sin  in  all  its  forms; 
and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  Missionary  Societies 
to  grant  aid  to  churches  in  slave-holding  states, 
in  the  support  of  such  ministers  only  as  shall  so 
preach  the  Gospel  and  inculcate  the  principles 
and  application  of  Gospel  discipline  that  with 
the  blessing  of  God  it  shall  have  its  full  effect  in 
awakening  and  enlightening  the  moral  sense  in 
regard  to  slavery,  and  in  bringing  to  pass  the 
speedy  abolition  of  that  stupendous  wrong;  and 
that,  wherever  a  minister  is  not  permitted  so  to 
preach,  he  should,  in  accordance  with  the  direc- 
tions of  Christ  in  such  cases,  depart  out  of  that 
city.' 

"So  the  rise  of  Congregationalism  in  Chicago, 
as  well  as  in  many  other  parts  of  our  country, 


20  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROT 

was  found  to  synchronize  with  these  two  confluent 
forces — the  passing  of  the  Plan  of  Union  and 
the  rise  of  the  anti-slavery  tide.  On  the  Fourth 
of  July  the  First  Church  was  accustomed  to  hold 
a  prayer  meeting  for  emancipation  which  we  of 
the  Plymouth  loved  to  attend.  The  Plymouth 
Church  on  the  night  of  the  day  of  John  Brown's 
execution,  held  a  memorial  service  in  the  inter- 
ests of  emancipation  in  which  Eobert  Collyer 
participated  and  also  John  Wentworth.  It  was 
these  two  churches  that  took  the  lead  in  calling 
that  memorable  Chicago  convention  in  Bryan 
Hall  to  memorialize  President  Lincoln  m  the 
interest  of  a  proclamation.  Dr.  Patton  wrote 
and  I  had  the  honor  of  circulating  the  call  for  all 
who  would  favor  such  a  proclamation.  I  found 
it  a  delight  to  see  the  ready  appreciation  of  the 
thing  by  the  most  influential  business  men.  The 
ministers  of  all  Protestant  denominations  ap- 
proved it  in  their  meetings,  except  the  Presby- 
terians. They  claimed  not  to  be  ready  to  ask 
directly  for  such  a  proclamation,  but  preferred 
to  discuss  the  question,  and  so  they  were  not  in 
that  mighty  outpouring  of  the  people  which  made 
Judge  Otis  president  and  other  such  men  his 
associates,  and  which  appointed  Dr.  Dempster 
of  Evanston  and  Dr.  Patton  to  carry  the  memo- 
rial to  the  President  of  the  United  States.    As 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  21 

they  came  home  Dr.  Patton  set  his  people  to 
praying  at  morning  service  and  while  they  were 
praying  the  proclamation  came.  Not  long  after, 
Joseph  Medill,  of  The  Tribune,  told  me  that 
recently  in  Washington  as  he  met  Secretary 
Stanton,  that  majestic  war  magnate  said  to  him, 
'You  tell  those  doctors  in  Chicago  that  their  mis- 
sion did  the  business,  that  Mr,  Lincoln  had  been 
wavering  up  to  that  time,  but  after  it  he  was  all 
right/ 

''And  so  this  Chicago  Association,  in  its  Dec- 
laration of  Principles,  at  the  start,  April,  1853, 
set  forth: 

*'  *We  believe  that  slave-holding,  or  holding 
our  fellow  beings  as  property,  is  an  immorality 
in  practice,  and  the  defense  of  it  is  heresy  in 
doctrine,  either  of  which  ought  to  be  regarded  as 
a  disqualification  for  church  fellowship.'  " 

It  was  in  this  time  of  upheaval,  this  period  in 
which  new  doctrines  were  being  forged  in  the 
furnace  of  a  mighty  national  struggle,  that 
Joseph  E.  Eoy  served  as  pastor  of  a  growing 
church  in  the  central  city  of  America.  He  came 
to  the  kingdom  for  such  a  time  as  that  was,  and 
bore  his  testimony  like  a  brave  man  in  an  hour 
that  had  need  of  strong  men  with  wide  vision, 
sympathetic  hearts,  and  fearless  purpose. 


22  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

III.       WITH    THE   AMERICAN    MISSIONARY    ASSOCIATION. 

After  a  pastorate  of  five  years  in  Plymouth 
Church,  Dr.  Roy  accepted  a  call  by  the  American 
Missionary  Association  to  a  district  secretary- 
ship in  the  same  city,  but  in  a  year  and  a  half, 
by  a  change  in  national  affairs,  it  was  mutually 
agreed  that  he  should  accept  a  transfer  to  the 
Home  Missionary  Society,  in  which  service  he 
continued  for  eighteen  years.  In  1878 — by  mutual 
arrangement  again — Dr.  Roy  was  reappointed  to 
the  American  Missionary  Association  as  its  field 
superintendent,  and  under  his  supervision  of 
seven  years  some  fifty  churches  were  organized. 
In  1885  Dr.  Roy  was  asked  for  the  second  time 
to  take  the  office  of  district  secretary  at  Chicago, 
which  he  did,  holding  it  with  great  usefulness 
until  1903,  when,  at  the  age  of  seventy-six  years, 
he  was  made  secretary  emeritus.  He  continued, 
however,  as  his  strength  would  allow,  to  serve  the 
association  until  his  very  last  year,  when  he  was 
practically  laid  aside  by  the  infirmities  of  age. 

It  was  this  work  for  the  colored  people  that 
became  truly  his  life-work;  and  it  is  important 
that  we  trace  the  steps  by  which  he  was  led  to  it. 
For  it  was  no  accident  of  propinquity  or  adven- 
titious opportunity  that  made  him  the  friend  of 
the  black  man,  but  a  providential  call  whose 
prophetic  warnings  had  long  before  been  uttered. 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  23 

The  first  conscious  influence  that  turned  his 
mind  toward  the  claims  of  the  colored  people 
was  a  series  of  addresses  delivered  by  Rev. 
Wilham  T.  Allen,  in  Mount  Gilead,  Ohio,  when 
the  family  of  John  Roy  lived  in  that  village, 
just  prior  to  their  removal  to  Illinois.  It  was  in 
the  year  1834,  and  he  was  about  seven  years 
of  age. 

Rev.  William  T.  Allen  was  a  son  of  the  Pres- 
byterian pastor  in  Huntsville,  Alabama,  who, 
with  his  brother  James,  came  to  Lane  Seminary, 
Cincinnati,  while  it  yet  had  a  literary  course. 
There  they  became  abolitionists,  for  which  the 
father,  being  a  slave-holder,  disinherited  them. 
The  father  was  connected  with  the  one  General 
Assembly  before  the  South  broke  off.  These 
brothers  went  from  Lane  to  Oberlin  in  connection 
with  the  rebellion  at  the  former  place,  as  they 
could  not  enjoy  their  liberty,  the  trustees  of  Lane 
having  arbitrarily  forbidden  the  students  to  dis- 
cuss the  question  of  slavery.  William  T.  Allen 
came  to  Mt.  Gilead  in  a  winter  vacation,  lecturing 
upon  the  anti-slavery  cause.  He  was  entertained 
at  the  home  of  John  Roy.  He  taught  nothing 
radical,  aiming  mainly  to  appeal  to  the  sympa- 
thies of  the  people  in  behalf  of  the  slave.  The 
boy  Joseph  heard  and  ever  remembered  some- 
what of  the  story  which  he  told.  He  was  a  very 
eloquent  man,  and  produced  a  profound  impres- 


24  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

sion.  On  the  third  night  of  the  lectures  in  the 
Presbyterian  church  a  mob  assembled  to  break 
him  up.  With  squibs  of  powder,  with  musical 
instruments  and  hooting  they  broke  up  the  lec- 
ture. On  the  way  home  from  that  lecture  Mrs. 
Eoy  was  walking  between  Mr.  Allen  and  the  boy, 
Joseph  being  then  a  lad  of  but  seven  years.  The 
mob  pursued  them  and  threw  egg  shells  filled  with 
tar.  When  they  arrived  at  their  home  they 
noticed  the  strong  smell  of  tar,  and  soon  found 
the  occasion  in  the  besmirching  of  the  garments 
of  Mrs.  Eoy  and  of  Mr.  Allen.  Being  on  the 
farther  side,  the  boy  was  not  hit.  The  mob,  sup- 
posing that  the  lecturer  had  gone  to  the  home  of 
an  uncle,  whose  wife  was  John  Koy's  sister,  in 
the  course  of  the  night  displayed  their  sentiments 
by  filling  an  earthen  jar  with  filth  and  throwing  it 
at  the  door.  The  cloak  worn  by  Mrs.  Eoy  was 
kept  until  a  daughter,  Ann,  Mrs.  Fearnside, 
started  to  Ejiox  College  with  Joseph,  whereupon 
the  step-mother  cut  it  over,  leaving  out  the  tarred 
parts,  and  fitted  it  up  for  her  to  wear  to  college. 
When  the  family  removed  to  Lyndon,  Illinois, 
a  settlement  then  but  three  years  old,  the  first 
on  the  north  side  of  the  Eock  river,  they  fell  in 
among  a  community  of  abolitionists.  Mr.  Eoy 
and  his  son  were  borne  along  by  that  tide  of  sen- 
timent, John  Eoy  as  an  old  Whig  adhering  to 
Henry  Clay  as  long  as  he  could,  finally  came  out 


REV.   JOSEPH    E.    ROY,    1853. 


MRS,    .TOSEI'IT    R.    ROY.    ISr,: 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  25 

on  the  liberty  party  side,  a  party  antedating  the 
Free  Soil  and  the  Eepublican  parties.  In  the  vil- 
lage shoe  shop  the  father  of  Eev.  S.  F.  Millikan 
had  placards  around  the  walls  such  as  this  from 
Thomas  Jetferson,  "When  I  remember  that 
God  is  just,  I  tremble  for  my  country/'  refer- 
ring to  the  matter  of  slavery.  The  boys  of  Lyn- 
don drank  in  that  spirit.  When  Joseph  went  to 
Geneseo  to  prepare  for  college  he  fell  in  with 
another  little  abolition  colony  which  had  come  to 
plant  education  and  religion  in  the  west ;  and  then 
when  he  went  to  Galesburg  for  college  he  was  in 
the  midst  of  the  abolition  flame. 

The  Missionary  Association  was  organized 
at  Albany,  New  York,  in  1846,  as  the  result  of 
the  rising  tide  of  abolitionism,  complaint  being 
made  that  the  old  societies  having  more  or  less 
of  complicity  with  slave-holding  in  receiving 
slave-holders  to  churches  ministered  to  by  their 
missionaries  at  home  and  abroad.  The  organi- 
zation was  a  protest  against  all  of  that  complicity. 

In  Union  Seminary  Mr.  Eoy  and  his  college 
mate,  C.  F.  Martin,  finding  that  all  the  other 
missionary  magazines  were  received  and  dis- 
tributed around  at  the  doors  of  the  rooms,  but 
that  **The  American  Missionary"  was  not  thus 
handled,  took  it  upon  themselves  to  procure  that 
journal  every  month  and  carry  it  around  sepa- 
rately. 


26  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

Leaving  the  Seminary,  from  which  he  grad- 
uated with  an  anti-slavery  address,  he  took  a 
commission  from  the  A.  M.  A.  to  labor  with  the 
little  new  church  at  Brimfield,  Illinois,  the 
salary  being  $450,  $200  of  which  came  from  the 
A.  M.  A.  While  in  that  pastorate  of  two  years, 
as  the  political  party  in  power  was  moving  to 
annul  the  Missouri  Compromises  which  had  fixed 
the  northern  boundary  of  slavery  beyond  Mis- 
souri by  the  southern  line  of  that  state,  he 
preached  a  sermon  from  the  text,  "Cursed  be 
he  that  removeth  his  neighbor's  landmark,"  i.  e.. 
The  Landmark  of  Freedom,  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise. Other  such  sermons  were  preached  on 
that  line  as  Kansas  and  Nebraska  were  in  the 
throes  of  rebellion  against  the  slave  power  which 
was  throttling  the  liberty  of  those  two  territories. 
Also  in  that  time  he  received  the  black  man  to 
his  home  in  the  night,  as  he  rapped  at  the  door, 
and  in  his  buggy  carried  him  along  to  the  next 
station. 

In  the  fall  of  1855  he  was  called  to  the  Plym- 
outh Church  in  Chicago,  which  two  years  before 
had  been  organized  on  the  anti-slavery  basis. 

Dr.  Eoy  said:  "Their  testimony  had  been 
incorporated  into  their  organic  law.  It  did  not 
hurt  us  to  be  called  the  'nigger'  church  and  the 
pastor  the  'nigger'  preacher.  During  that  pas- 
torate of  five  years  in  the  heart  of  the  anti- 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  27 

slavery  conflict  I  preached  against  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  upon  the  perpetuity  of  fredom  in  Kan- 
sas, notwithstanding  the  atrocities  which  had 
been  enacted  there.  The  fire  of  the  discourse 
came  from  the  burning  embers  of  the  city  of 
Lawrence,  of  Ossawattomie  and  many  private 
homes." 

Just  before  this  Mr.  Roy  had  made  a  tour  of  the 
territory  of  Kansas,  traveling  with  Governor 
Robinson  for  a  couple  of  weeks,  he  making  the 
political  speeches  and  Roy  the  abolition.  The  first 
"Pilgrim"  letter  was  written  from  Kansas  at 
this  time.  On  the  tour,  as  Governor  Robinson 
and  his  secretary  were  making  their  way  toward 
Fort  Scott  for  an  appointment,  learning  that  the 
border  ruffians  were  in  force  there,  they  were 
obliged  to  turn  aside  and  in  doing  so  got  lost. 
Wandering  about  until  late  in  the  evening,  they 
were  guided  into  a  grove  by  the  cackling  of  geese 
and  the  barking  of  dogs.  There  they  begged  the 
privilege  of  the  settler  to  lie  down  upon  the 
hearth  of  his  one-roomed  cabin  with  their  feet 
to  the  fire,  and  their  supper  consisted  of  flap- 
jacks and  pork.  By  daylight  they  were  up  and 
Mr.  T.  J.  Marsh,  treasurer  of  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Society,  and  also  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts, 
handed  out  a  five  dollar  gold  piece  to  the  mistress 
of  the  cabin.  Coming  to  their  destination  for 
the  Sabbath  appointment,  they  told  where  they 


28  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

had  spent  the  night  and  were  informed  that  that 
was  the  home  of  one  of  the  worst  border  ruffians 
in  the  country,  and  that  if  he  had  known  the  big- 
ness of  the  game  he  had  in  his  house  he  would 
have  routed  the  neighbors  and  taken  his  guests 
prisoners.  But  they  had  escaped  out  of  the  snare 
of  the  fowler  and  they  quoted  for  their  delecta- 
tion the  words  of  the  Psalmist,  '  *  Thou  preparest 
a  table  before  me  in  the  presence  of  mine  ene- 
mies." 

As  Mr.  Roy  and  the  Massachusetts  officials 
returned  from  their  campaign  they  had  a  public 
reception  in  the  city  of  Lawrence.  Senator  James 
Lane  presided,  and  introduced  Dr.  Roy  as  "The 
fighting  preacher — the  sort  we  love." 

In  1857  he  participated  in  a  Fourth  of  July 
celebration  in  Chicago,  when  the  cornerstone  was 
laid  of  the  original  Chicago  University.  The 
speaker  was  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  Dr.  Roy  pro- 
tested against  accepting  an  invitation  to  offer 
prayer  in  connection  with  an  address  by  Senator 
Douglas,  but  being  pressed  to  accept,  and  having 
warned  those  who  invited  him  what  might  be  the 
scope  of  his  prayer,  he  prayed  as  his  heart  and 
convictions  prompted  him  to  do.  He  prayed  that 
the  time  might  come  when  the  slave  would  rejoice 
in  the  blessing  of  freedom  and  share  in  the  cele- 
bration of  America's  Independence  Day.  Senator 
Douglas  already  knew  young  Roy  and  had  de- 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  29 

nounced  certain  statements  wMch  the  young 
preacher  had  made  in  a  Kansas  sermon.  But  the 
prayer  troubled  him  more  than  the  sermon  had 
done  and  he  cut  short  his  address  that  day,  with 
the  excuse  that  his  throat  was  sore.  The  Chi- 
cago papers  commented  upon  the  speech  the  next 
day  and  said  ''Roy's  prayer  gave  Douglas 
bronchitis." 

On  the  night  of  the  day  when  John  Brown 
was  hung,  Dr.  Roy  held  a  rousing  public  meet- 
ing in  Plymouth  Church,  addressed  by  John 
Wentworth  and  Robert  Collier,  and  on  evory 
occasion  when  the  slavery  question  was  promi- 
nent he  was  a  leading  figure.  When  colored  men, 
making  their  way  to  Canada,  were  pursued  in 
Chicago,  he  was  called  into  counsel  and  protected 
them  and  helped  them  on.  During  this  time  he 
met  John  Brown  in  one  of  his  journeys  through 
the  city,  and  all  his  life  he  honored  that  heroic 
zealot.  When  President  Lincoln  was  holding 
back  the  emancipation  proclamation.  Dr.  Roy  and 
Dr.  Patton  organized  a  meeting,  and  Dr.  Roy 
circulated  a  petition  which  Dr.  Patton  took  to 
Washington.  It  was  while  a  meeting  for  prayer 
was  in  progress,  after  Dr.  Patton  returned,  that 
the  news  came  that  the  emancipation  proclama- 
tion was  made  public,  and  the  two  young  Chicago 
pastors  were  given  reason  to  believe  that  their 
effort  had  had  weight  with  Mr.  Lincoln. 


30  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

When,  therefore,  the  war  was  over,  and  the 
American  Missionary  Association  looked  for  a 
field  agent  who  could  care  for  the  little  cluster 
of  churches  it  had  organized  in  the  west  and 
centering  about  Chicago,  there  was  no  man  better 
trained  for  the  work  required  than  Joseph  E. 
Eoy.  And  when,  later,  he  was  needed  for  a  great 
and  growing  work  in  the  South,  he  accepted  the 
call  as  one  for  which  his  whole  life  had  been  a 
providential  preparation. 

And  yet  those  years  in  the  South  were  years 
of  trial.  They  involved  ostracism,  petty  perse- 
cution, and  real  sacrifice.  It  was  one  thing  to 
preach  in  favor  of  the  negro  in  Chicago,  and  quite 
another  thing  to  live  with  his  family  in  the  midst 
of  people  who  but  lately  had  been  slaves  and  to 
encounter  scorn  and  ostracism  from  their  former 
masters.  Yet  this  the  proud-spirited  man  bore, 
not  only  uncomplainingly,  but  with  a  cheerful 
optimism  which  was  characteristic  of  his  whole 
life. 

Under  the  fostering  care  of  the  American  Mis- 
sionary Society  rose  not  only  common  schools, 
but  colleges  and  universities  for  the  education  of 
the  freedmen.  One  of  these,  Atlanta  University, 
was  in  the  city  where  he  made  his  southern  home. 
The  colored  students  of  Atlanta  leveled  off  the 
breastworks  thrown  up  by  the  army  of  the  Con- 
federates and  dug  down  through  the  relics  of 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  31 

war  to  lay  the  foundations  of  the  institution 
whose  mission  was  one  of  peace  and  righteous- 
ness. At  Nashville,  Tennessee,  Fisk  University 
came  into  being  through  the  same  agency,  and  its 
colored  singers  made  the  slave  melodies  of  the 
South  a  part  of  the  world's  heritage  of  sacred 
song.  Straight  University,  Tillotson  Institute, 
Tougaloo  University,  and  other  institutions  of 
higher  learning  planned  the  permanent  work  of 
the  Association  in  the  Gulf  States,  and  send  their 
students  out  as  a  leavening  force  throughout  the 
whole  South.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  exag- 
gerate the  influence  of  the  graduates  of  these 
institutions  for  good.  Some  of  the  large  schools 
for  colored  people  which  have  since  grown  up  in 
the  South,  like  Tuskegee,  drew  their  trained  lead- 
ers, in  great  measure,  from  the  graduates  of  these 
institutions.  The  teachers  and  preachers  and 
faithful  guides  of  a  new  generation  of  black 
people  were  trained  in  the  schools  of  the  A.  M.  A. 
Dr.  Eoy  entered  into  this  expanding  work  with 
broad  vision  and  profound  sympathy ;  and  when, 
later,  the  American  Missionary  Association  ex- 
tended its  work  to  Hawaii  on  the  west,  and  to 
Porto  Eico  on  the  east,  the  expansion  was  not 
too  great  for  his  patriotic  spirit.  The  work  never 
grew  tame  or  commonplace  to  him.  To  the  end 
of  his  life  he  was  re-writing  his  lectures,  collecting 
new  material,  telling  the  story  of  the  growing 


32  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROT 

work  of  the  Society  which  he  so  loved,  and  telling 
it  always  with  patriotic  fervor  and  profound 
religious  sympathy. 

In  view  of  a  work  so  varied  as  Dr.  Roy  suc- 
cessfully accomplished,  one  must  be  impressed 
with  the  dignity  and  value  of  a  single  life.  The 
high  regard  in  which  Dr.  Roy  was  held  by  the 
colored  people  of  the  South  testifies  to  his  sacri- 
ficial devotion  to  their  interests.  He  was  among 
the  last  of  those  truly  large,  broad-minded,  wide- 
visioned  men  who  espoused  an  unpopular  cause  in 
its  beginnings  and  consecrated  themselves  in  full- 
hearted  sincerity  and  without  question  to  the  op- 
pressed and  to  their  uplifting.  Dr.  Roy  was  sim- 
ply revered  among  the  colored  people  of  the 
South.  He  not  only  had  their  absolute  confidence, 
but  the  abundant  wealth  of  their  affection.  His 
friendship  for  these  needy,  persecuted  people 
began  at  the  very  start  of  his  career,  continued 
throughout  his  life  of  abundant  service,  and  the 
gratitude  of  these  humble  people  is  a  halo  round 
his  memory. 

Dr.  Roy's  friendship  for  the  colored  man  had 
been  put  to  the  test  in  the  very  beginning  of  his 
ministry,  and  it  stood  that  test  then  and  ever 
afterward.  The  courage  and  devotion  of  his  wife 
were  one  with  his  in  all  those  experiences.  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Roy  spent  the  winter  of  1860-1  at  the 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  33 

Orient  Hotel,  on  State  street,  Chicago.  The  cook 
was  a  colored  man  who  had  bought  his  freedom, 
and  then  had  assisted  his  wife  to  escape  from 
slavery.  She  was  a  comely,  virtuous  mulatto 
woman,  who  worked  in  the  hotel  laundry.  One 
day  in  February,  1861,  a  United  States  marshal 
came  to  the  hotel,  accompanied  by  a  literal  blood- 
hound, and  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  woman. 
The  proprietor  of  the  hotel  was  a  Democrat,  and 
far  from  being  an  abolitionist,  but  the  thought 
of  surrending  a  woman  to  be  returned  to  slavery 
was  one  he  could  not  endure.  Detaining  the  mar- 
shal for  a  few  moments,  he  sent  the  laundress  to 
Mrs.  Eoy's  room.  She  hurried  the  fugitive  into 
a  large  closet,  moved  a  tall  secretary  against  the 
closet  door,  and  hung  a  picture  above  the  desk. 
Soon  the  bloodhound  tracked  the  woman  to  the 
room,  and  to  the  desk,  where  he  pawed  and 
growled,  but  the  marshal  saw  no  place  where  she 
could  be  hidden.  Mrs.  Roy  sat  calmly  sewing, 
and  met  all  inquiries  with  permission  to  search 
as  much  as  they  liked.  The  bloodhound  returned 
after  an  interval,  and  as  before  paid  special  atten- 
tion to  the  secretary,  but  the  officer  did  not  cause 
it  to  be  moved.  Forty-eight  hours  the  woman  hid 
in  the  closet,  and  was  released  when  the  officer 
and  the  dog  were  well  out  of  Chicago.  It  is  said 
to  have  been  the  last  time  that  a  bloodhound  was 
brought  to  Chicago  to  track  a  fugitive  slave. 


34  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

Dr.  Eoy's  work  for  the  freedmen  is  an  open 
book,  known  and  read  of  all  men.  From  the  out- 
set he  favored  industrial  education  among  the 
colored  people,  and  his  vision  of  their  future  was 
as  discriminating  as  it  was  full  of  hope.  He  had 
faith  in  the  improvability  of  men,  and  was  ever 
the  friend  of  those  whose  need  was  greatest. 

Dr.  Eoy  was  one  of  the  first  to  favor  the  en- 
trance of  the  American  Missionary  Association 
into  the  mountains  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee. 
Friend  as  he  was  of  the  black  man,  he  was  an 
ardent  lover  of  his  own  race  as  well;  and  his 
heart  kindled  when  he  expressed  his  large  faith 
in  those  stalwart,  loyal  men  and  women  of  the 
American  highlands.  These,  no  less  than  the 
freedmen,  the  Indians,  the  Chinamen  and  the  men 
of  Hawaii  and  Porto  Rico,  owe  a  debt  of  grati- 
tude to  Dr.  Eoy. 

Those  who  knew  Dr.  Eoy  in  his  southern  work 
know  with  what  unreserved  devotion  he  threw 
himself  into  every  portion  of  it.  He  was  unspar- 
ing of  effort  and  unfailing  iu  resource.  His  sym- 
pathy was  as  ready  as  his  judgment  was  true. 
It  is  impossible  to  speak  of  the  work  he  performed 
in  other  than  superlative  terms,  or  to  characterize 
in  any  ordinary  phraseology  the  love  which  he 
inspired. 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  BOY  35 

IV.      THE  MAN   OF  PROPHETIC  VISION. 

Dr.  Roy  has  left  to  us  an  unusual  quantity  of 
material  by  which  his  opinions  may  be  judged  at 
various  stages  of  his  career.  He  spoke  much  and 
he  wrote  much,  and  what  he  wrote  he  preserved. 
His  Pilgrim  Letters  number  over  seven  hundred 
and  cover  more  than  thirty  years  of  a  very  active 
life.  Beside  these,  he  printed  many  occasional 
addresses  and  historical  reviews,  and  these  he 
collected  and  bound  into  volumes,  making  a  con- 
siderable library. 

There  is  nothing  of  the  theorist  in  these  papers. 
From  first  to  last  they  are  practical.  They  were 
called  forth  by  definite  issues,  and  in  almost 
every  case  were  prepared  for  specific  occasions. 
He  wrote  no  books  or  pamphlets  from  mere  pride 
of  authorship.  Several  of  his  essays  were  gath- 
ered by  him  and  bound  in  manuscript  and  in 
newspaper  clippings  into  a  volume  which  he  en- 
titled ' '  The  Footsteps  of  the  Pilgrims  Across  the 
Continent,"  but  he  never  published  it  as  a  work 
of  literature.  His  writings  all  were  prepared 
because  there  was  a  specific  occasion  for  them. 

But  while  these  show  that  Dr.  Roy  was  no 
visionary,  they  show  him  as  a  man  of  vision. 
While  he  was  still  a  young  pastor,  the  Atlantic 
cable  was  laid.  August  6,  1858,  was  the  date  of 
the  first  message,  and  his  sermon  of  August  8 


36  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

was  preached  on  '*  Christianity,  the  end  of  all 
Progress  in  Science, ' '  with  the  cable  as  its  leading 
illustration,  and  the  prediction  that  such  discov- 
eries must  bring  the  world  into  closer  federation 
till  the  reign  of  peace  is  established. 

Before  this,  in  1856,  he  preached  a  sermon 
which  was  printed,  on  ^  4^ansas ;  Her  Struggle  and 
Her  Defense,"  declaring  that  freedom  must 
come,  but  would  come  through  a  great  upheaval. 
His  text  was,  ''And  at  the  time  of  the  end  shall 
the  king  of  the  South  push  at  him,  and  the  king  of 
the  North  shall  come  against  him  like  a  whirlwind, 
with  chariots  and  with  horsemen,  and  with  many 
ships,  and  shall  enter  into  the  countries,  and  shall 
overflow  and  pass  over."  Some  of  the  passages 
in  this  sermon  burn  with  prophetic  fervor,  and 
show  a  wonderful  comprehension  of  the  conditions 
of  that  day,  which  were  to  make  the  conditions  of 
the  terrible  and  glorious  years  that  followed, 
when  out  of  the  strife  came  peace  and  freedom. 

In  1867  he  printed  a  pamphlet  entitled,  ''Tal- 
ladega: the  First  Industrial  School  Among  the 
Negroes,"  in  which  he  set  forth  the  then  new 
doctrine  that  the  Negro  to  be  trained  for  citizen- 
ship must  be  educated  in  body  and  mind,  the 
hand  and  the  soul  receiving  discipline  together. 

When  it  was  proposed  that  the  higher  branches 
be  eliminated  from  the  A.  M.  A.  schools  in  the 
mountains,  he  withstood  the  movement,  which 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  BOY  37 

was  pressed  by  a  number  of  ^'practical"  business 
men,  Dr.  Roy  declaring  that  the  mountain  youth 
needed  a  leadership  that  was  worthy  of  the  best. 

In  1893,  at  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition, 
he  was  made  president  of  the  African  Congress. 
His  opening  address  was  a  noble  utterance,  in- 
terpreting the  congress  in  its  moral  influence.  He 
said; 

"We  have  no  votes  to  cast,  no  authority  to 
wield,  no  diplomacy  to  exploit.  But  we  have 
the  means  of  generating  moral  sentiment,  and 
that  is  the  power  behind  the  throne." 

He  then  proceeded  to  tell  what  the  Christian 
world  might  do,  through  its  moral  influence  alone, 
to  better  conditions  of  trade  and  moral  uplift  in 
Africa,  in  the  obliteration  of  the  slave  trade,  the 
prohibition  of  the  sale  of  rum  to  natives,  and  the 
securing  of  justice  in  matters  of  trade  with  Af- 
rican races. 

He  who  reads  these  publications  and  the  manu- 
script addresses  that  were  never  published  is  im- 
pressed with  the  sanity  and  vision  of  their  author. 
He  was  never  carried  away  by  his  enthusiasms. 
He  was  always  the  practical  man,  with  his  feet 
on  the  solid  earth ;  but  he  walked  erect,  and  looked 
straight  on,  and  from  the  elevation  of  his  prac- 
tical experience  and  his  confident  trust  in  God 
and  his  fellow  men,  he  saw  the  future  in  the  light 


38  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

of  that  faith  which  is  the  substance  of  things 
hoped  for. 

As  his  years  increased,  he  became  more  and 
more  an  authority  on  the  periods  of  history  which 
he  had  known  and  studied.  He  contributed  a 
valuable  chapter  to  Dr.  Dunning 's  History  of 
Congregationalism;  he  delivered  ihistorical  ad- 
dresses before  the  Illinois  General  Association 
and  other  bodies.  But  his  life  was  in  the  pres- 
ent and  his  hope  was  for  the  future.  The  back- 
ward look  along  the  way  which  God  had  led  him 
and  the  world  but  steadied  the  vision  with  which 
he  looked  forward  to  better  things  to  come. 

V.      THE  GOLDEN  WEDDING. 

In  1871  Dr.  Eoy  removed  to  Oak  Park,  making 
his  home  at  8  Elizabeth  Court.  He  united  with 
the  First  Church,  which  he  had  helped  to  organize, 
and  of  that  church  he  remained  a  member  for 
thirty-seven  years.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  mem- 
ber and  a  loyal  supporter  of  the  church  he  so 
dearly  loved,  and  his  love  for  it  was  returned 
abundantly.  During  the  last  nine  years  of  his 
life  the  pastor  of  the  church  was  one  who  had 
begun  his  ministry  in  the  southern  mountains 
while  Dr.  Eoy  was  field  superintendent,  and  with 
whom  he  had  enjoyed  happy  relations  throughout 
a  period  of  years.  In  this  church  Dr.  Roy  had 
repeated  evidence  of  the  love  of  the  community. 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  39 

At  the  time  of  his  golden  wedding,  June  21,  1903, 
Dr.  Roy  preached  a  sermon  in  the  First  Church 
from  the  text,  ''And  ye  shall  hallow  the  fiftieth 
year"  (Lev.  xxv,  10),  which  was  heard  with  ap- 
preciation by  a  large  congregation.  At  the  time 
of  his  retirement  from  active  service  in  the 
American  Missionary  Association,  the  church  held 
a  reception  in  honor  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Roy  and 
presented  them  a  fine  set  of  books  which  he  loved 
to  read  so  long  as  he  was  able  to  read  at  all. 

Dr.  Roy  was  not  permitted  to  doubt  the  affec- 
tion which  his  neighbors  and  co-workers  sustained 
for  him.  One  of  the  last  of  many  pleasant  occa- 
sions which  he  shared  was  his  eightieth  birthday, 
when  a  company  of  workers  in  the  American  Mis- 
sionary Association  called,  with  other  friends, 
and  presented  him  a  fine  steel  engraving  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln.  The  gift  was  as  acceptable  to  him 
as  the  spirit  which  prompted  it  was  delightful, 
and  he  enjoyed  the  memories  of  the  occasion 
to  the  end  of  his  life. 

The  golden  wedding  sermon  was  full  of  tender 
reminiscences  and  pervaded  by  a  thoroughly 
characteristic  hopefulness.    In  it  he  said: 

''We  are  taught  to  pray:  'Our  Father  who  art 
in  heaven. '  If  He  is  our  Father  we  are  His  chil- 
dren. There  can  be  no  higher  honor  than  to  be 
named  the  children  of  such  a  Father.  As  His 
children  we  are  made  in  His  image  of  reason,  of 


40  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

feeling,  of  will,  by  which  we  can  have  communion 
with  Him.  Not  only  the  individual  member  of 
the  household  is  so  related,  but  the  family  has 
Him  for  Father  just  as  much.  Then  there  is  the 
breath  of  such  a  family.  *I  bow  my  knees  unto 
the  Father,  from  whom  every  family  in  heaven 
and  every  family  on  earth  is  named.' 

a  <The  Family  in  heaven.'  The  spirits  of  just 
such  men  made  perfect — not  the  angels,  but  our 
own  kith  and  kin — all  the  redeemed  both  in  heaven 
and  in  earth.  They  are  all  one  Family  and  are 
all  of  one  community — a  great  and  glorious 
brotherhood.  Part  are  in  heaven — near  the 
throne;  part  are  in  distant  worlds;  part  are  re- 
deemed and  glorified  spirits;  part  are  in  the 
church  on  earth,  but  all  are  united  as  one  family 
having  one  Head  and  one  Father.  This  family 
will  yet  be  gathered  together  in  heaven,  and  will 
encompass  the  throne  of  their  common  Father. 
Households  will  be  reunited.  Their  members  will 
be  clothed  with  their  spiritual  bodies,  to  be  recog- 
nized of  one  another,  to  have  perfect  communion ! 
They  will  have  a  service  congenial  and  unending 
— such  service  as  Moses  and  Elijah  had,  who  came 
back  to  this  earth  a  deputation  from  heaven  with 
greetings  for  the  Son  of  God,  with  inquiry  con- 
cerning the  decease  which  He  was  to  accomplish 
at  Jerusalem.  Surely  this  will  be  a  royal  family. 
We  talk  of  all  being  sovereigns  in  our  country. 


liKV.   JOSEPH   E.   ROY,   D.D..   1903. 


MRS.   JOSEPH    E.    ROY,   1903. 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  41 

In  that  country  we  shall  all  be  kings  and  priests 
unto  God.  What  condescension  of  the  Infinite 
Father!  What  honor  to  such  children,  to  such  a 
family.  And  the  earthly  family  may  be  a  min- 
iature of  the  heavenly.  In  our  country  we  begin 
to  talk  about  training  diplomats,  consuls,  ambas- 
sadors, commissioners,  for  their  several  public 
functions.  In  our  own  households  we  may  be 
training  our  families  for  such  embassies  and  depu- 
tations, for  such  a  heavenly  citizenship. 

**In  view  of  such  divine  ordainment  and  author- 
ity of  the  family  the  conclusion  seems  clear  that 
the  unfolding  of  God's  Providence  through  only  a 
family  period  of  fifty  years  may  afford  occasion 
for  grateful,  reverent,  stimulating  recognition  in 
matters  of  domestic  and  public  interest. 

'  *  That  a  family  should  be  continued  through  the 
years  of  a  jubilee,  or  from  1853  to  1903,  is  a  fact 
commonly  observed  by  appreciative  friends,  and 
we  thank  our  pastor  and  our  people  for  such 
attentions  today.  It  takes  two-thirds  of  our  three 
score  and  ten  to  reach  a  golden  wedding.  With 
all  one  risks  of  the  cutting  off  of  life  it  is  a  rare 
favor  of  Providence  that  both  companions  are 
spared  to  love  and  serve  one  another,  their  chil- 
dren, their  children's  children,  their  generation 
and  their  God.  Since  the  day  of  marriage  what 
a  sifting  has  gone  on !  It  is  a  procession  of  asso- 
ciates and  of  friends  that  have  passed  on.    Of 


42  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

schoolmates,  how  many  have  fallen  away!  It 
begins  to  seem  lonely.  How  many  in  whom  we 
have  taken  delight,  how  many  to  whom  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  resort  for  confidential  ad- 
vising, are  silent  now?  Our  colony  on  the  other 
side  is  thickening  in.  It  is  a  goodly  company. 
We  are  anticipating  reunion." 

These  memories  of  friends  departed  did  not 
weaken  his  spirit  of  hopefulness.  He  said,  as  he 
neared  the  close  of  his  sermon: 

"Let  us  not  say  'the  former  days  were  better 
than  these. '  My  friends,  has  not  the  unfolding  of 
God's  Providence  through  only  one  fifty-year 
period  of  domestic  life  given  us  all  occasion  for 
a  grateful,  reverent,  stimulating  recognition  of 
his  abounding  goodness  to  us  in  the  midst  of  our 
respective  periods  of  wedded  life?" 

At  the  time  of  this  celebration  a  friend  wrote 
the  following  lines,  which  he  enjoyed : 

GOLDEN  WEDDING  ANNIVERSAEY. 

Leviticus,  25:10. 


''Hallow  the  fiftieth  year,"  so  Moses  said; 
For  they  who  half  a  century  have  been  led 
By  God's  good  hand  along  life's  upward  slope. 
Reaching  at  length  this  golden  crest  of  hope, 
Full  well  may  pause  and  glance  a  moment  back; 
Then,  thankful,  take  again  the  upward  track. 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  ,  43 

** Hallow  the  fiftieth  year!"  the  year  of  gold, 
By  bards  and  prophets  heralded  of  old! 
Life's  rosary  of  half  a  hundred  years 
Told,  one  by  one,  with  joys  and  prayers  and  tears, 
Meets  now  in  this,  which  clasps  the  holy  chain. 
And  in  this  hour  you  live  them  all  again ! 

' '  Hallow  the  fiftieth  year ! ' '    Servants  of  God, 
Who  life's  long  road  together  thus  have  trod. 
Your  children  rise  and  honor  you  today. 
Friends  with  this  golden  milestone  mark  your  way. 
So  long  a  path  for  two  to  walk  as  one ! 
And  yet  but  yesterday  these  years  begun! 

** Hallow  the  fiftieth  year!"    God  grant  you  still 
Years  with  us  yet  to  work  His  holy  will. 
Then  countless  centuries  in  the  land  of  bliss, 
When  God  has  given  you  all  the  joy  of  this  I 
There  fifty  years  shall  seem  a  moment's  play — 
For  there  a  thousand  years  count  but  a  day. 

VI.      THE  SUNSET  AND  THE  AFTERGLOW. 

For  several  months  prior  to  his  death  Dr.  Roy 
was  in  failing  health,  but  cherished  to  the  last 
his  cheerful  spirit,  his  trust  in  God  and  his  love 
for  all  good  things.  He  maintained  through  his 
sickness  that  appreciation  and  hopefulness  which 
had  characterized  his  whole  life;  and  at  length, 


44  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

full  of  years,  blessed  of  God  and  honored  by  his 
fellow  men,  he  closed  his  earthly  career,  and  his 
works  do  follow  him. 

The  surviving  members  of  Dr.  Roy's  family  are 
his  widow,  his  daughters,  Mrs.  F.  A.  Gillette,  Oak 
Park;  Mrs.  E.  C.  Ellis,  of  Kansas  City;  Mrs.  F.  V. 
Stevens,  Yankton,  S.  D.,  and  his  son,  Joseph  H. 
Roy,  of  Oak  Park. 

The  funeral  of  Dr.  Roy  took  place  at  2  o'clock 
on  Sunday  afternoon,  March  8,  1908,  in  the  main 
auditorium  of  the  First  Congregational  Church 
of  Oak  Park,  conducted  by  the  pastor,  assisted 
by  a  number  of  prominent  clergymen. 

The  service  began  with  Chopin's  ''Funeral 
March"  and  ended  with  Handel's  "Hallelujah 
Chorus, ' '  both  rendered  by  the  organist,  Mr.  Will- 
iam E.  Zeuch. 

The  pallbearers  were  Messrs.  Willis  S.  Herrick, 
Clarence  S.  Pellet,  Henry  W.  Austin,  Harold  H. 
Rockwell,  Percy  W.  Blackmer  and  Theodore  M. 
Kerkhoff .  Twelve  of  the  most  prominent  citizens 
of  Oak  Park  acted  as  honorary  pallbearers: 
Messrs.  E.  W.  Lyman,  S.  W.  Packard,  E.  H. 
Pitkin,  D.  J.  Kennedy,  W.  F.  Furbeck,  George 
Walker,  A.  T.  Heminway,  William  Spooner, 
George  Eckart,  0.  D.  Allen,  W.  H.  Kerkhoff  and 
W.  F.  Van  Bergen.  Mr.  D.  D.  Garcelon  acted  as 
chief  usher. 

The   following  ministers   participated:     Rev. 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  45 

Messrs.  William  E.  Barton,  J.  C.  Armstrong,  A. 
H.  Armstrong,  E.  M.  Williams,  C.  M.  Morton, 
A.  N.  Hitchcock,  M.  B.  Williams,  Simeon  Gilbert, 
C.  J.  Ryder,  W.  A.  Bartlett,  F.  N.  White,  Thomas 
McClelland  and  H.  J.  Ferris.  These  thirteen  min- 
isters met  the  coffin  at  the  church  door  and  pre- 
ceded it  to  the  chancel,  the  pastor  reading  the 
burial  service.  The  choir  sang  ' '  Saved  by  Grace, ' ' 
a  favorite  hymn  of  Dr.  Roy  and  of  the  family. 
The  scripture  was  read  by  Rev.  A.  N.  Hitchcock, 
secretary  of  the  American  Board,  whose  office  for 
many  years  has  been  next  door  to  that  of  Dr. 
Roy ;  and  prayer  was  offered  by  his  time-honored 
friend.  Rev.  E.  M.  Williams.  Mr.  Laurence  M. 
Sturtevant  sang  Mendelssohn's  "Be  Thou  Faith- 
ful unto  Death." 

Four  addresses  followed,  treating  of  different 
phases  of  the  life  of  Dr.  Roy.  The  first  was  by 
Rev.  C.  J.  Ryder,  of  New  York  City,  who  spoke 
of  Dr.  Roy's  work  in  the  American  Missionary 
Association.  The  second  was  by  President 
Thomas  McClelland,  of  Knox  College,  of  which 
Dr.  Roy  was  the  oldest  living  graduate  and 
trustee.  The  third  was  by  Rev.  Frank  N.  White, 
of  Union  Park  Church,  Chicago,  whose  parents 
had  been  friends  of  the  family  of  Dr.  Roy  in  their 
childhood  home. 

The  closing  address  was  by  Dr.  Barton  and 
related  itself  to  Dr.  Roy's  service  here  and  else- 


46  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

where.  A  closing  prayer  was  offered  by  Rev. 
Simeon  Gilbert,  D.  D. 

The  choir  sang  "For  all  thy  saints  who  from 
their  labors  rest,"  and  hundreds  of  friends  and 
neighbors  passed  for  a  last  look  at  a  face  long 
loved  in  Oak  Park. 

A  special  train  conveyed  the  family  and  friends 
to  Graceland,  where  Drs.  Barton  and  Ryder  con- 
ducted the  burial  service.  A  very  touching  inci- 
dent occurred  at  the  grave.  A  group  of  colored 
people,  led  by  a  woman  who  had  once  belonged 
to  the  Fisk  Jubilee  Singers,  sang  as  the  coffin  was 
lowered  into  the  grave, ' '  Swing  low,  sweet  chariot, 
coming  for  to  carry  me  home."  No  event  of  the 
day  was  more  simply  appropriate  than  this  ten- 
der hymn  of  the  black  people,  for  whom  he  had 
labored  so  many  years. 

At  the  age  of  seventy-six  Dr.  Roy  was  asked  if 
he  was  still  an  optimist,  and  why.  He  was  also 
asked  to  state  in  writing  something  of  the  ruling 
purpose  of  his  ministry.  This  was  what  he  wrote, 
and  it  is  worthy  to  be  remembered  by  those  who 
loved  him: 

"In  my  fifty  years  of  preaching  I  have  learned 
to  adhere  to  the  same  message :  God,  a  sovereign ; 
man,  a  sinner;  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  a  Saviour 
by  his  vicarious  sacrifice ;  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  re- 
generator, the  sanctifier;  the  gospel  of  Christ,  the 
means  for  the  redemption  of  the  world ;  the  word 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  47 

of  God,  the  revelation  of  his  character  and  the 
chart  of  redemption.  I  have  learned  as  to  the 
method  of  preaching  to  care  more  for  the  facts 
of  the  salvation  scheme  than  for  the  philosophical 
analysis  of  it.  I  have  learned  to  take  the  proved 
results  of  scholarship  and  of  science  as  in  har- 
mony with  the  Divine  Word,  and  I  have  given 
my  own  thought  and  labor  for  the  uplifting  of 
men.  I  am  an  optimist,  because  I  have  faith  in 
the  purpose  of  God — a  purpose  expressed  in  his 
Word  and  confirmed  by  the  progress  of  the  world 
under  his  guidance." 

This   was   the   faith  in  which   he   lived   and 
wrought,  and  faith  like  this  does  not  die. 

W.  E.  B. 

Oak  Park,  Easter,  1908. 


AN  AMERICAN  WITHOUT  GUILE. 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  FUNERAL  BY   REV.   FRANK   NEWHALL 

WHITE,  D.  D.,  PASTOR  OF  UNION  PARK 

CHURCH,  CHICAGO. 


My  only  justification  for  taking  part  in  this 
service  is  a  personal  relation;  a  relation  so  per- 
sonal that  it  all  but  deprives  me  of  the  power  of 
speech;  for  I  feel  struggling  with  me  for  ex- 
pression voiees  of  sainted  spirits  that,  in  the  days 
of  their  flesh,  were  members  of  the  New  England 
colony  that  established  themselves  on  the  banks 
of  the  Eock  River  in  Whiteside  County  of  this 
state — Dr.  Roy's  early  home.  What  I  have  to 
say,  therefore,  will  be  in  the  nature  of  a  personal 
tribute. 

My  first  word  is  this :  Our  good  friend  seemed 
to  me  the  living  embodiment,  the  walking  defini- 
tion of  spirituality  or  spiritual-mindedness.  I 
fear  that,  as  we  think  of  that  fine  quality,  we 
often  have  in  mind  only  its  caricature.  When  we 
try  to  give  it  form,  we  are  apt  to  think,  not  of 
some  robust,  vigorous  worker,  but  of  some  pale, 

49 


50  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

wan  person,  consumptively  inclined,  laid  aside 
from  daily  work  and  spending  his  declining  years 
with  clasped  hands  and  averted  eyes.  Or  if  we 
are  familiar  with  art,  we  think  not  of  some  Apollo 
Belvidere,  some  Venus  of  Melos,  some  Winged 
Victory  of  Samothrace,  but  of  the  saints  and 
angels  of  Fra  Angelico,  with  their  attenuated 
bodies,  their  pallid  faces,  their  transparent  hands, 
and  rapt  eyes  fixed  upon  the  uplifted  crucifix. 
And  so  it  has  become  possible  for  us  to  misunder- 
stand and  even  to  caricature,  in  thought  and 
speech,  what  is  really  the  finest  thing  in  the 
world — spirituality.  If  we  had  consulted  our 
Bible  instead  of  these  pitiful  caricatures,  we 
should  not  have  gone  so  far  astray.  To  be  spirit- 
ually-minded, says  Paul  (who,  for  broad,  varied 
interests,  and  for  heroic,  effective  living,  stands 
all  but  supreme  among  men) — to  be  spiritually- 
minded  is  life.  That  is  to  say,  when  you  have 
spirituality  you  really  live.  Until  you  have  it  you 
have  not  begun  to  live.  To  the  extent  that  you 
lack  it  you  are  not  living;  you  are  only  going 
through  the  motions  of  living.  Whatever  else 
spirituality  may  or  may  not  be,  it  is  at  least  life 
in  its  broadest  interpretation  and  its  highest  ex- 
pression— life  substantial,  contagious  and  abound- 
ing. Its  head  may  be  in  the  clouds,  but  its  feet 
are  on  the  solid  earth,  and  it  looks  to  every  point 
of  the  compass.    Can  we  find  better  definition  for 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  51 

it  than  this:  Spirituality  is  that  rare  transform- 
ing atmosphere  surrounding  the  man  who  lives 
with  **a  vivid  sense  of  unseen  realities  and  a 
firm  trust  in  the  living  God";  in  a  word,  ** en- 
dures as  seeing  him  who  is  invisible."  Spiritu- 
ality— what  is  it?  It  is  the  visible  saturated  with 
the  invisible.  It  is  the  seen  shot  through  and 
through  with  the  unseen.  It  is  the  finite  and  the 
perishable  carrying  the  atmosphere  and  the  frag- 
rance of  the  infinite  and  the  imperishable.  It  is 
earth  linked  to  heaven;  it  is  man  plus  the  living 
God.  To  my  mind,  our  good  friend  bodied  forth 
in  flesh  and  blood  spirituality  of  this  robust,  he- 
roic type — the  finest  trait  that  can  characterize 
children  of  God. 

Another  trait  springing  from  and  naturally 
allied  with  this  strong  spirituality  was  guileless- 
ness.  Of  him  it  might  have  been  said,  much  as 
Jesus  said  of  Nathaniel,  ''Behold  an  American, 
a  child  of  God,  in  whom  there  is  no  guile ;  a  soul 
unsullied,  free  from  stain."  If  anyone  in  his 
presence  ventured  on  a  harsh  criticism  or  a  se- 
vere disparagement  of  another,  there  would  be  no 
rebuke  but  that  of  an  eloquent  and  effective  sil- 
ence. He  seemed  to  see  no  evil  and  to  hear  no 
evil,  and  he  spoke  no  evil.  If  he  saw  evil,  there 
were  no  ominous  and  sinister  shadows  thrown 
upon  the  limpid,  pellucid  waters  of  his  soul.  If 
he  heard  evil,  it  produced   no    dissonance    nor 


52  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

jangling  in  his  voice.  Certain  it  is  that  he  spoke 
no  evil.  And  the  secret  of  it  all  must  have  been 
that  he  thought  no  evil.  For  out  of  the  abundance 
of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh;  and  also  out 
of  the  quality  of  the  heart  it  is  that  the  mouth 
keeps  significant  silence.  There  was  in  him  the 
love  that  suffereth  long  and  is  kind,  that  vaunteth 
not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up,  behaveth  not  itself  un- 
seemly, thinketh  no  evil;  the  love  that  believeth 
all  things,  beareth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things, 
endureth  all  things;  the  love  that  never  fails. 
Surely  if  there  be,  or  ever  were,  a  Holy  Grail, 
our  true  knight  Sir  Galahad  saw  and  followed 
the  gleam.  But  with  him  it  was  not  as  with  the 
one  who  caught  the  vision  in  days  of  old;  it  did 
not  lead  him  away  to  a  secluded  nook  to  spend 
his  remaining  days  in  pious  meditation  and  ec- 
stasy; it  sent  him  back  rather  among  his  fellows 
to  point  and  lead  his  brother  to  the  same  ravish- 
ing vision  divine. 

I  cannot  close  without  mentioning  one  other 
trait  that  held  me  under  its  spell — his  chivalry 
and  knighthood.  We  have  often  had  occasion  to 
notice  how  neighbors  and  friends  going  to  the 
South-land  and  living  for  a  while  in  that  atmos- 
phere, have  returned  with  a  changed  angle  of 
vision,  a  different  perspective,  actually  apologiz- 
ing for  deeds  of  injustice,  of  oppression  and  vio- 
lence, which  can  be  mentioned  only  with  a  blush 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  53 

of  shame.  Our  friend's  vision  was  never  dis- 
torted nor  dimmed.  He  saw  straight  and  far 
and  true.  His  note  was  never  muffled.  He  knew 
no  compromise,  as  a  chivalrous  champion  of  the 
age-long  victim  of  wrong.  One  thing  he  knew, 
and  that  alone — brotherhood  that  comes  by  way 
of  the  cross.  I  have  spoken  of  him  as  our  modem 
Sir  Galahad,  whose  strength  was  as  the  strength 
of  ten,  because  his  heart  was  pure.  Better  still, 
he  was  our  modern  Bayard,  knight  without  fear 
and  without  reproach. 


A  FRIEND  OF  HUMANITY. 

TRIBUTE   BY   REV.    CHARLES    J.    RYDER,    SECRETARY    OF 

THE   AMERICAN    MISSIONARY   ASSOCIATION, 

NEW   YORK. 


Dr.  Ryder  spoke  at  the  funeral  with  special 
reference  to  Dr.  Roy's  work  for  the  American 
Association.  The  address  was  not  written,  but 
much  that  was  contained  in  it  found  later  expres- 
sion in  a  resolution  adopted  by  the  executive  com- 
mittee of  the  American  Missionary  Association, 
and  conveyed  to  the  family: 

**Rev.  Joseph  Edwin  Roy,  D.  D.,  district  secre- 
tary emeritus  of  the  American  Missionary  Asso- 
ciation, died  in  his  home  at  Oak  Park,  111.,  on 
Wednesday,  March  4,  1908.  Dr.  Roy  for  many 
years  had  held  a  large  place  in  the  counsel  and 
active  administration  of  the  American  Missionary 
Association.  Few  men  were  better  known  among 
the  churches,  either  in  the  North  or  South,  than 
was  this  strong  and  genial  secretary.  No  one  who 
has  ever  served  the  churches  was  more  honored, 
esteemed  and  loved  than  he.    The  conditions  of 

54 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  55 

his  life  and  public  service  were  somewhat  peculiar 
and  varied. 

''He  was  bom  in  Martinsburg,  Ohio,  on  Febru- 
ary 7,  1827.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  therefore, 
he  was  just  a  month  more  than  eighty-one  years 
of  age.  His  early  life  was  spent  in  Ohio  and 
Illinois,  in  regions  in  which  the  great  anti-slavery 
movements  stirred  not  only  the  churches  and  the 
political  parties,  but  also  the  family  circle  of 
every  home.  The  object  lessons  of  the  negroes 
escaping  from  the  cruelties  of  southern  slavery 
were  most  impressive  to  the  boy  and  lad,  and 
these  were  frequent.  Young  Eoy  early  developed 
scholarly  tendencies,  and  after  preparatory  study 
in  an  academy  he  entered  Knox  College  in  Il- 
linois, from  which  he  graduated  in  1848  at  the 
early  age  of  twenty-one.  From  his  earliest  youth 
he  was  deeply  interested  in  the  anti-slavery  move- 
ment, his  father's  house  being  a  station  on  the 
Underground  Eailway.  Five  years  later  he  grad- 
uated from  Union  Theological  Seminary.  While 
a  student  in  the  seminary  he  frequently  spoke  in 
the  interests  of  the  American  Missionary  Asso- 
ciation in  the  churches  in  and  about  New  York. 
After  graduation  he  immediately  took  appoint- 
ment under  the  American  Missionary  Association 
in  a  small  church  in  Illinois  which  stood  for  the 
brotherhood  of  man  as  really  as  the  fatherhood 
of  God.    A  brief  service  in  this  church  at  Brim- 


56  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

field  showed  the  stuff  that  was  in  the  young 
preacher  and  opened  a  call  to  the  Plymouth 
Church  in  Chicago.  From  this  pulpit  Mr.  Roy 
became  district  secretary  of  the  American  Mis- 
sionary Association  for  the  Western  District  in 
1868.  He  had  supervision  of  some  seventy-five 
churches  planted  in  the  Northwest,  who,  like  the 
church  at  Brimfield,  desired  to  register  their  loy- 
alty to  the  same  principle  of  the  gospel,  the 
brotherhood  of  man.  It  was  a  time  when  pro- 
slavery  influence  seemed  to  dominate  some  of 
our  churches  and  even  benevolent  societies;  and 
the  progressive,  earnest,  freedom-loving  churches 
of  the  West  and  Northwest  sought  rather  the  su- 
pervision of  the  association  that  did  not  compro- 
mise with  slavery.  After  a  time,  as  Dr.  Roy  put 
it,.* The  other  societies  all  swung  into  line,'  and 
the  churches  with  the  district  secretary  were 
transferred. 

"Secretary  Roy  in  1878  was  called  to  the  field 
superintendency  of  the  American  Missionary  As- 
sociation, with  residence  at  Atlanta,  Ga.  It  was 
a  delicate  and  difficult  administration.  The  great 
mass  of  negroes  were  still  children  creeping  out 
from  the  darkness  of  slavery  into  the  light  of  the 
new  day.  The  southern  white  people  were  still 
bitter  over  the  defeat  of  the  war  and  many  of 
them  cruel  and  brutal  toward  the  negroes.  Su- 
perintendent Roy  had  to  convince  the  negroes  of 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  57 

his  sincere  friendship  for  them  in  order  to  lead 
them  in  wholesome  methods.  He  must  also  make 
the  impression  upon  the  critical  whites  of  the 
South,  of  the  sterling,  earnest,  honest,  simple- 
minded  Christian  that  he  was.  That  he  did  both 
his  splendid  superintendency  proves. 

"In  1885  he  was  appointed  district  secretary 
of  the  American  Missionary  Association  again  in 
Chicago  and  served  in  this  place  until  in  1903, 
when  he  retired  and  as  secretary  emeritus  has 
been  more  or  less  busy  in  the  work  which  held 
his  heart  for  all  these  years. 

**Dr.  Roy  was  a  Christian  diplomat.  He  was 
a  peacemaker  because  he  loved  peace.  He  was  a 
statesman.  One  of  the  important  events  in  the 
history  of  the  American  Missionary  Association, 
the  mission  to  the  interior  of  Africa,  greatly  in- 
terested Dr.  Roy,  he  having  the  correspondence 
with  Secretary  of  State  James  G.  Blaine,  as  Dr. 
Strieby,  the  corresponding  secretary,  was  tem- 
porarily called  away  from  the  office.  Superintend- 
ent Roy  managed  the  correspondence  with  wis- 
dom and  skill,  and  as  a  result  Dr.  H.  M.  Ladd 
and  Dr.  Snow  received  a  commission  from  the 
British  government  to  go  up  the  Nile  to  study 
the  conditions  of  the  native  tribes. 

**In  all  the  fellowship  of  the  office  Dr.  Roy's 
judgment  was  held  in  high  esteem.  Throughout 
the  entire  field.  North  and  South,  men  honored 


58  JOSEPH  EDWm  EOY 

this  sterling,  courageous  but  gentle  disciple  of 
the  Master,  who  partook  of  his  spirit  in  daring 
righteousness  and  in  gentle  and  generous  judg- 
ment of  his  fellow  men. 

''Chas.  a.  Hull, 

* '  Chairman. 
''William  Hayes  Waed, 
** Recording  Secretary.'* 


AS  HIS  COLLEGE  REMEMBERS  HIM. 


LAND,   D.  D.,    OF    KNOX    COLLEGE. 


Knox  College  was  founded  by  a  gronp  of  men 
who  believed  in  education  for  the  leaders  of  the 
new  commonwealth  which  they  were  helping  to 
build.  Its  opportunities  and  ideals  appealed  to 
young  men  of  the  stamp  of  Joseph  E.  Roy,  and 
these  came  to  it,  and  still  come,  for  their  life 
preparation. 

Dr.  Roy  was  our  oldest  living  alumnus.  Had 
he  lived  until  June  of  the  present  year,  he  would 
have  been  graduated  sixty  years.  There  are  no 
memories  of  his  student  days  by  those  who  knew 
him  then,  for  all  these  have  preceded  him.  He 
remained  alone  of  his  generation.  Yet  this  we 
know,  that  from  the  days  when  he  entered  the  col- 
lege as  a  freshman  down  to  the  day  of  his  death, 
Knox  College  loved  and  honored  him.  He  has 
been  for  many  years  on  our  Board  of  Trustees, 
and  was  our  oldest  trustee.  All  gatherings  of  the 
college  which  he  attended  were  the  richer  for  his 


60  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

presence  there;  and  he  bore  to  a  rich  old  age  the 
honors  which  gathered  upon  him  during  the  years. 
It  is  fitting  that  my  word  here  should  be  a  brief 
one,  but  it  is  none  the  less  sincere  and  hearty.  I 
express  the  sympathy  of  our  faculty,  our  trustees, 
our  alumni,  one  and  all,  when  I  say  that  Knox 
College  shares  with  the  wide  circle  of  his  friends 
the  respect  and  affection  belonging  to  our  honored 
alumnus  and  trustee.  His  integrity,  his  wisdom, 
his  experience,  his  faith,  all  these  made  us  love 
him.  I  pay  him  a  tribute  of  affection  on  behalf 
of  an  institution  that  has  known  and  claimed  him 
for  three  score  years. 


A  SERVANT  OF  GOD  AND  OF  HIS 
GENERATION. 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  FUNERAL  BY  REV.  WILLIAM  E.  BARTON, 

D.   D.,   PASTOR   OF   THE   FIRST   CONGREGATIONAL 

CHURCH,   OAK   PARK,   ILLINOIS. 


"For  David,  after  he  had  served  his  own  generation  by  the 
will  of  God,  fell  on  sleep."     Acts  xiii.,  36. 

Several  times  during  the  last  three  years  Dr. 
Roy  discussed  the  subject  of  his  own  funeral. 
Some  of  the  directions  which  he  first  gave  he 
afterward  modified,  especially  after  the  funeral 
of  his  dear  friend  and  neighbor,  Dr.  Humphrey. 
In  choosing  the  men  who  were  to  speak  at  his 
funeral,  he  recognized  that  some  of  them  might 
be,  as  some  of  them  are,  at  too  great  distance  to 
participate,  and  he  named  a  large  group  of  his 
friends,  a  number  of  them  young  men,  any  one  of 
whom  he  would  have  been  glad  to  have  speak 
here.  But  he  wished  that  there  might  be  short 
addresses  concerning  his  work,  his  personal  rela- 
tions, and  his  love  for  this  church  and  community ; 

61 


62  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

and  the  men  who  are  to  speak  these  words  are 
the  men  he  chose.  He  also  desired  that  if  pos- 
sible his  friend,  Dr.  Savage,  who  with  him  organ- 
ized this  church,  should  be  asked  to  offer  a  prayer 
at  the  service.  Dr.  Savage,  at  the  age  of  ninety, 
is  unable  to  be  here.  We  are  obeying  Dr.  Roy's 
instructions  in  these  matters,  and  in  what  we  say 
or  do  beyond  them,  we  are  following  our  own 
hearts. 

Dr.  Roy  did  not  expect  that  I  would  preach 
a  funeral  sermon.  But  he  desired  that  I  should 
use  a  text,  and  the  text  I  have  chosen  is  one  that 
he  approved :  *' David,  after  he  had  served  his  own 
generation,  by  the  will  of  God,  fell  on  sleep." 

It  belongs  to  other  speakers  to  tell  how  Dr. 
Roy  served  his  generation  in  his  work  for  home 
missions  and  the  American  Missionary  Associa- 
tion; how  mightily  he  wrought  for  the  planting 
and  encouragement  of  churches  in  Illinois,  and 
afterward  in  the  Southland;  how  his  'Pilgrim 
Letters,'  in  a  day  more  provincial  than  this,  in- 
terpreted to  the  East  the  growing  spirit  of  the 
West  and  South,  and  helped  to  knit  our  religious 
life  into  unity.  In  all  this,  and  the  great  and 
unrecorded  work  of  advice  and  sympathy  and  fel- 
lowship ;  in  the  uplifting  of  the  black  man ;  in  the 
exercise  of  a  great-hearted  and  unfailing  kind- 
ness. Dr.  Roy  served  his  generation. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  know  Dr.  Roy  when 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  63 

he  was  in  the  midst  of  this  service  a  quarter 
century  ago,  and  by  him  to  be  welcomed  into  the 
ministry,  a  ministry  to  the  stalwart  people  of  the 
mountains  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  The 
sweet  fellowship  of  these  later  years  continued  a 
friendship  of  much  longer  standing,  and  per- 
mitted some  knowledge  of  the  magnitude  of  his 
service. 

Dr.  Roy  was  never  so  much  at  home  as  in 
those  years  when  he  was  seldom  at  home;  never 
more  truly  himself  than  when  he  had  no  time 
to  think  of  himself ;  never  more  happy  than  when 
he  was  racing  the  country  over,  sleeping,  as  he 
facetiously  said,  *4n  a  thousand  beds  a  year."  He 
met  the  problems  of  a  great  parish,  extending 
from  the  Ohio  to  the  Gulf,  with  decision  and 
sympathy  and  gentleness.  When  I  submitted  to 
him  the  question  of  my  own  entrance  into  the 
ministry,  and  questioned  whether  I  had  a  call 
to  preach,  his  answer  was  so  prompt  and  unhesi- 
tating as  almost  to  silence  all  misgiving: 

**You  are  as  certainly  called  to  preach  in  the 
mountains  as  Paul  was  to  preach  to  the  Gentiles." 
There  was  something  prophetic  in  the  way  in 
which  he  put  his  hand  on  young  men  and  made 
them  sure  of  their  work  and  the  motive  which  was 
to  inspire  it. 

I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  tell  you,  from  personal 
knowledge,  of  Dr.  Roy's  service  to  a  large  group 


64  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

of  men  in  that  day.  His  sympathy  was  as  ready 
as  his  judgment  was  sound,  and  his  counsel  was 
always  available.  Just  after  I  had  decided  to 
go  to  the  mountains  I  had  a  call  from  a  small 
city  church.  I  had  no  standard  by  which  to  judge 
between  them,  and  the  city  was  very  attractive, 
and  the  mountain  work,  as  I  knew  well,  was  hard. 
His  sound  judgment  steadied  my  faltering  reso- 
lution, and  helped  me  to  decide  to  go  into  the 
mountains,  where  I  spent  the  first  strenuous  and 
profitable  years  of  my  ministry.  The  mountain 
work  was  new.  I  was  one  of  its  early  mission- 
aries. No  man  realized  its  promise  more  than 
Dr.  Eoy. 

It  was  with  great  sorrow  Dr.  Eoy  gave  up 
this  field  work  to  devote  himself  to  work  in  an 
office.  I  was  present  at  a  meeting  of  ministers 
in  Cincinnati,  more  than  twenty  years  ago,  when 
he  announced  his  retirement  from  field  work.  *I 
have  accepted  the  judgment  of  my  brethren  as 
the  will  of  God,'  was  the  way  he  told  it.  It  was 
that  change  which  brought  him  back  to  Chicago, 
after  an  extended  absence,  and  to  this  church, 
which  he  had  helped  to  found,  and  of  which  he 
had  been  a  member  since  1871. 

He  brought  back  to  this,  his  home,  the  fruit 
of  wide  and  varied  experience,  and  an  unfailing 
loyalty  to  the  friends  and  the  church  in  this 
place.    He  did  not  like  to  think  of  himself  as  old ; 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  KOY  65 

he  entered  into  the  life  of  younger  men,  and  into 
the  plans  of  the  present  time,  with  ardor  and 
enthusiasm.  Traveling  to  and  fro  in  the  state 
with  map  and  lantern,  teaching  a  patriotism  that 
knew  no  intermediate  sectional  lines  between  the 
encircling  oceans  that  bound  the  land  he  loved,  he 
proclaimed  the  liberty  which  the  Pilgrims  estab- 
lished and  which  Lincoln  enlarged,  and  the  faith 
which  Christ  taught  and  which  his  Church  per- 
petuates. In  journies  many  and  long,  in  minis- 
trations varied  and  constant,  he  served  his  gen- 
eration. 

During  the  long  illness  of  Dr.  Roy  there  were 
times  of  mental  incertitude,  body  and  mind  fail- 
ing together.  He  forgot  the  calendar,  and  the 
week  had  more  than  its  proper  proportion  of 
Sundays,  for  his  thoughts  were  of  his  work  and 
of  the  services  of  the  house  of  God.  At  the  time 
of  the  forty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  organization 
of  this  church,  a  few  weeks  ago,  we  sent  him 
a  message,  and  the  joy  of  that  message  was  with 
him  in  his  very  last  moments  of  coherent  thinking. 

Seven  years  before,  on  the  occasion  of  our 
thirty-eighth  anniversary.  Dr.  Roy  delivered  an 
address  which  went  back  to  the  beginnings  of  our 
church  life  and  to  the  organization  in  which  he 
had  so  large  a  part.  This  address,  written  at 
the  time,  was  brought  out  a  few  weeks  ago,  and, 
with  a  few  statistics  changed  to  bring  certain 


66  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

totals  down  to  date,  was  furnished  to  the  local 
press.  Dr.  Roy  was  greatly  pleased  with  the  pub- 
lication of  that  address.  The  seven  years'  inter- 
val had  no  place  in  his  thought.  He  heard  the 
address  again  as  joyfully  as  if  he  had  just  de- 
livered it.  In  spirit  he  lived  it  all  over  and  re- 
joiced with  us. 

On  the  Saturday  night  before  he  died  a  storm 
was  raging,  with  thunder  and  lightning.  He  was 
restless,  and  at  times  lapsed  into  unconscious- 
ness. He  joined  in  a  prayer  that  was  offered  for 
him,  and  when  he  was  reminded  that  the  next  day 
would  be  Sunday,  and  that  his  friends  in  the 
church  would  think  of  him,  he  groped  for  a  mo- 
ment to  find  the  pleasant  thought  that  had  been 
much  with  him.  "I  received  a  message — "  he  said, 
and  that  was  as  far  as  he  got;  but  even  then,  in 
the  last  hour  in  which  he  was  capable  of  under- 
standing its  meaning,  he  was  happy  in  the  mes- 
sage which  his  church  had  sent  to  him — a  message 
of  affection  that  looked  back  over  forty-five  years 
and  forward  to  the  long  eternity. 

Dr.  Roy  was  fond  of  telling  the  story  of  the 
colored  man  who  was  asked  whether  he  was  an 
optimist  or  a  pessimist,  and  who  replied  that  he 
was  a  **possumist."  Dr.  Roy  liked  the  little  smile 
which  the  story  provoked.  And  then  he  was  wont 
to  add  that  the  word  '^possumist"  might  properly 
be  derived  from  the  Latin  *' posse,"  and  mean 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  67 

*'We  are  able."  Dr.  Roy  was  willing  to  stand 
with  the  black  man  in  faith  in  his  ability  to  be  a 
man.  Dr.  Roy  was  an  optimist  because  he  be- 
lieved in  God.  He  was  an  optimist  again  because 
he  believed  in  men — in  black  men  and  in  white 
men;  in  good  men  and  in  bad  men.  He  believed 
in  manhood,  in  democracy,  in  brotherhood. 

That  faith  in  God  which  gave  him  faith  in 
men,  that  love  of  humanity  whose  passion  he  dis- 
cerned in  Jesus  Christ,  Dr.  Roy  both  taught  and 
practiced  through  the  fourscore  years  of  his 
manly,  devoted  and  sweet-spirited  life.  He  be- 
lieved it  and  he  lived  it,  and  thereby  he  served 
his  generation.  He  erected  for  himself  a  monu- 
ment in  manhood,  erect  and  facing  the  dawn.  He 
taught  the  truths  which  his  own  age  needed,  and 
lived  the  truths  he  taught.  And,  having  served 
his  generation  by  the  will  of  God,  he  fell  on 
sleep. 


A  MAN  AND  A  MINISTER. 

A  TESTIMONIAL.  PBEPARED  BY  EEV.  F.  A.  NOBLE,  D.  D., 


CHICAGO,    MARCH    16,    1908. 


It  is  a  delight  and  an  inspiration  to  contem- 
plate a  life  which  has  been  large  and  sweet  and 
true.  It  is  a  solace  to  the  heart  when  smitten 
with  bereavement  to  recall  the  virtues  of  one  with 
whom  we  have  been  permitted  to  walk  in  the 
fellowship  of  love  and  service.  The  man  of  God 
who  has  gone  out  from  us,  but  to  whom  we  pay 
tribute  today,  was  a  clean  soul,  strong  and  brave 
to  meet  the  demands  of  every  situation  in  which 
he  was  placed.  It  is  a  duty  which  we  owe  to 
ourselves,  as  well  as  an  act  of  justice  and  affec- 
tion to  him,  to  pause  long  enough  to  put  on  record 
our  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  work  he  did,  and 
our  sense  of  the  excellency  of  his  character. 

Dates  of  birth  and  death,  and  other  turning 
points  in  the  career  of  this  co-worker  whom  we 
all  came  to  know  as  the  clear-seeing,  whole-souled, 
beloved  and  consecrated  Dr.  Roy,  need  not  detain 

68 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  69 

US.  Nor  is  it  either  necessary  or  possible  to  say 
all  that  might  be  said  in  his  commendation.  He 
touched  us  all,  as  he  touched  life,  at  many  points ; 
and  he  put  us  under  bonds  of  admiration  and 
esteem  on  many  grounds  and  for  many  reasons. 
It  is  sufficient  for  us  here  and  now  to  know  that 
he  was  a  product  of  a  persecuted  Huguenot  an- 
cestry, that  he  was  the  child  of  a  Christian  home, 
that  he  decided  early  to  be  a  minister  of  Christ, 
that  he  was  educated  in  institutions  which  had 
been  founded  and  built  up  by  sacrifice,  and  that 
from  first  to  last  he  was  loyal  to  the  principles  and 
the  traditions  into  whose  inheritance  he  had  come. 
The  roots  of  his  life  were  nourished  in  a  soil 
which  had  been  fertilized  by  the  blood  of  mar- 
tyrs ;  and  the  air  he  breathed  at  the  fireside  of  the 
home  circle  was  resonant  with  echoes  of  the  cries 
of  the  bruised  and  oppressed.  God  knows  how  to 
fit  cog  and  mesh  in  the  working  of  the  intricate 
machinery  of  his  providence ;  and  under  his  guid- 
ance the  suffering  of  a  victim  of  ecclesiastical 
tyranny  yonder  in  France  became  in  a  remote 
offspring  warm  and  practical  sympathy  with  a 
race  burdened  and  writhing  under  the  iron  heel 
of  civil  tyranny  here  in  America. 

An  analysis  of  the  qualities  of  the  man  makes 
it  clear  that  Dr.  Eoy's  mind  was  of  the  practical 
type.  It  was  not  the  mind  of  a  poet,  nor  of  a 
metaphysician,  nor  of  a  scientist,  nor  of  one  who 


70  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

is  likely  to  achieve  large  and  lasting  results  in  the 
sphere  of  technical  scholarship.  It  was  a  mind 
for  affairs.  It  was  the  kind  of  mind  with  which 
actual  conditions  are  comprehended  and  forces 
are  measured,  and  a  way  is  seen  for  bringing 
things  to  pass.  He  had  a  quick  eye  for  ends  and 
for  means  to  ends.  His  was  not  the  skill  of  the 
astronomer,  who  penetrates  the  far  depths  of 
space  and  brings  back  secrets  from  the  outer 
bounds  of  the  universe,  but  rather  that  of  the 
navigator  who  keeps  an  eye  on  the  north  star  and 
knows  the  use  of  the  compass,  and  can  turn  the 
helm  so  as  to  get  his  ship  past  the  rocks  and 
through  the  storms  and  over  the  seas  and  safe 
into  the  desired  haven.  He  was  not  a  dreamer 
who  dreamed  dreams  and  floated  in  the  air  of 
speculation,  and  played  with  iridescent  bubbles; 
he  was  a  thinker  who  thought  in  the  terms  of 
things  and  of  life.  His  thinking  was  veined  and 
arteried  with  common  sense.  He  did  not  have  the 
genius  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  nor  the  genius  of 
Abraham  Lincoln;  but  he  shared  in  a  large  de- 
gree in  their  eminent  gifts  of  simple  every-day 
common  sense.  He  had  the  intellectual  capacity 
for  wide  excursions,  but  his  feet  were  always  on 
the  solid  earth.  He  had  little  taste  for  the  think- 
ing which  ends  in  blind  alleys.  He  always  wanted 
to  get  somewhere  and  to  do  something.     Hence 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  71 

his  views  were  sane  and  his  conclusions  trust- 
worthy. 

The  uniform  kindness  and  courtesy  of  the  man, 
the  warm  sympathy  with  which  his  heart  was 
always  ready  to  flow  out  to  those  in  distress  and 
need,  and  the  ease  with  which  he  formed  lasting 
friendships,  are  not  to  be  overlooked;  but  it  was 
this  practical  cast  of  his  mind  which  made  him 
so  efficient  in  the  positions  he  occupied  and  so 
desirable  an  aid  in  things  to  be  done.  This  is 
why  the  managing  editors  of  The  Advance,  The 
Congregationalist  and  The  Independent  sought 
him  for  a  correspondent.  He  could  see  things  as 
they  were  and  state  them  as  they  were  and  help 
good  causes  forward. 

One  has  only  to  glance  at  the  volume  in  which 
selections  from  his  letters  to  these  journals  are 
republished  to  see  how  firm  was  his  grip  on  facts 
and  how  straight  his  arrows  sped  to  the  mark. 
In  his  speeches  there  were  never  any  flights  of 
oratory,  but  one  who  heard  him  knew  exactly 
what  he  was  talking  about,  felt  the  force  of  his 
statements  and  understood  what  he  wanted  to 
have  done.  It  was  this  same  practical  cast  of 
mind  which  made  him  the  man  for  the  hour,  not 
only  in  the  pulpit  when  times  were  trying,  but 
also  when  new  institutions  were  to  be  started  and 
new  fields  of  Christian  effort  were  to  be  entered, 
and  new  policies  were  to  be  shaped,  and  things 


72  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

were  to  be  done  which  called  for  the  keenest  sa- 
gacity as  well  as  a  superb  courage.  It  was  no 
child's  play  and  no  work  for  a  mediocre  brain  to 
help  launch  a  theological  seminary,  to  push  home 
missions  and  to  take  the  initiative  among  the 
freedmen  of  the  South,  when  he  set  his  hand  to 
these  tasks.  He  had  sentiment ;  but  he  was  never 
sentimental.  He  had  enthusing  forecast;  but  he 
was  never  visionary.  His  mind  was  well  rounded, 
well  balanced,  well  disciplined ;  and  there  are  few 
men  who  can  see  more  clearly  into  the  heart  of 
things,  or  who  can  more  accurately  define  the 
issues  in  church  and  state,  than  could  our  gentle- 
hearted  and  tenderly  cherished  Dr.  Eoy. 

The  moral  element  was  a  dominating  force  in 
the  life  of  Dr.  Roy.  His  purpose  began  in  a  pro- 
found sense  of  obligation  to  obey  God,  and  it  ran 
out  into  a  profound  sense  of  obligation  to  serve 
his  fellow  men.  He  was  a  wise  man — politic,  pru- 
dent, never  offensively  aggressive;  but  it  is  not 
difficult  to  conceive  that  in  Daniel's  environment 
he  would  have  been  a  Daniel ;  or,  in  their  several 
circumstances,  a  Paul  or  a  Huss  or  a  Hooper.  It 
was  the  moral  element  in  him  which  reacted  on 
his  mind  and  quickened  his  perceptions  and  gave 
a  high  and  wholesome  tone  to  all  his  plans.  It 
was  the  moral  element  in  him  which  led  him  into 
the  ministry,  and  which,  when  he  was  in  the  min- 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  73 

istry,  led  him  to  identify  himself,  heart  and  soul, 
with  the  bondmen  of  the  land. 

Dr.  Roy  was  born,  grew  up,  received  his  educa- 
tion and  entered  on  his  pulpit  duties  while  yet 
human  slavery  was  an  institution  protected  by 
the  flag  of  the  Republic  which  it  mocked  and  men- 
aced. One  whose  memory  does  not  go  back  to 
the  period  from  1840  to  1860,  and  especially  to 
the  second  decade  of  this  score  of  years,  can 
have  only  a  very  inadequate  idea  of  the  thousand 
subtle  ways  in  which  the  poisonous  influences  of 
the  ** peculiar  institution"  penetrated  and  per- 
verted public  opinion  in  the  North  as  well  as  in 
the  South.  Merchants,  manufacturers,  editors, 
statesmen,  ministers,  all  people  of  position  and 
influence,  were  exposed  to  the  temptation  to  muz- 
zle their  speech,  to  conquer  their  prejudices,  and 
to  fall  in  with  the  increasing  demands  of  the 
slave-holding  oligarchy.  Dr.  Roy  said  *'No,"  and 
he  wrote  it  with  a  capital  letter.  He  stood  for 
the  common  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  common 
brotherhood  of  the  human  race.  In  his  creed. 
Christian,  political  and  humanitarian  alike,  the 
equal  rights  of  all  men  to  life,  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness  was  a  cardinal  article.  From 
that  position  he  never  retreated.  In  the  contests 
which  that  position  invited  he  never  flinched.  Fu- 
gitives from  the  land  of  bondage  always  found 
in  him  a  friend  and  helper.    When  the  clash  of 


74  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

words  gave  way  to  the  clash  of  arms,  and  bay- 
onets had  been  forged  into  keys  with  which  to 
unlock  the  doors  of  the  terrible  prison-house  that, 
like  another  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta,  held  three 
millions  of  human  souls  within  its  stifling  walls, 
and  the  Great  Proclamation  had  trumpeted  lib- 
erty to  the  captive,  his  voice  went  up  with  the 
voice  of  the  bondmen  in  shouts  of  joy,  and  in 
ascriptions  of  praise  to  the  Almighty  for  the  de- 
liverance he  had  wrought. 

A  little  later  he  came  into  closer  association 
with  the  colored  people  of  the  South  through  his 
connection  with  the  American  Missionary  Asso- 
ciation ;  and  well-nigh  forty  years  of  his  life  went 
to  the  upbuilding  of  the  African  race  in  America. 
The  fidelity  and  thoroughness  with  which  he  did 
his  work  in  this  field  of  service,  the  courage  with 
which  he  met  and  overcame  difficulties,  the  pa- 
tience with  which  he  endured  the  scoffs  and  scorn 
and  ostracism  of  the  white  population  about  him 
when  with  his  family  he  was  living  at  Atlanta,  and 
the  cords  of  love,  stronger  than  hooks  of  steel, 
with  which  he  bound  to  himself  an  emancipated 
race,  show  the  genuine  fiber  and  the  moral  great- 
ness of  the  man.  In  the  spirit  of  the  Son  of  God 
he  wrought  for  the  lowly;  and  it  would  not  be 
too  much  to  say  that  few  men  in  his  generation, 
or  in  any  generation,  have  lived  more  useful  lives. 
It  may  be  said  of  him,  as  Whittier  sang  of  Joseph 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  75 

Stuge,  the  English  philanthropist,  in  the  words 
of  praise  he  incorporated  into  his  fine  tribute  to 
Channing : 

**With  us  was  one  who,  calm  and  true. 
Life's  highest  purpose  understood; 

And,  like  the  blessed  Master,  knew 
The  joy  of  doing  good." 

This  twain,  made  one,  of  a  mind  clear-visioned 
to  practical  issues,  and  of  a  moral  purpose  so 
dominating  that  it  became  a  passion  for  useful- 
ness, gave  us  the  robust  and  wholesome  person- 
ality whose  loss  we  mourn,  whose  genial  fellow- 
ship we  enjoyed,  whose  memory  we  revere,  and 
whose  lofty  example  of  loyalty  to  God  and  duty 
shall  be  to  us  an  inspiration  unto  the  end. 


AS  THE  CHURCHES  KNEW  HIM. 

BY  EEV.  SIMEON  GILBERT,  D.  D.,  FORMER  EDITOR  OF  THE 
ADVANCE — AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  AT  CHICAGO  AS- 
SOCIATION,  AT   ITS    SEMI-CENTENNIAL   CELE- 
BRATION,   IN    THE    FIRST    CHURCH, 
CHICAGO,  APRIL  20,   1908. 


A  man  who  knew  his  time;  a  man  who  served 
his  generation ;  a  man  who  throughout  a  long  life 
was  called  of  God  to  act  the  part  of  the  boldly- 
aggressive  pioneer :  the  meaning  of  a  life  like  his 
is,  I  believe,  worth  taking  pains  to  understand. 

For  very  many  years,  in  all  our  Congregational 
circles  in  Chicago  and  the  Interior,  nothing  has 
been  more  natural  than  fondly  to  mention  two 
names  in  one  breath,  **Roy  and  Savage."  Both, 
for  more  than  half  a  century,  have  been  most  inti- 
mately identij&ed  with  what  we  may  fitly  speak  of 
as  the  Congregational  Church  of  Chicago,  espe- 
cially in  its  more  distinctively  forward  movements. 
The  one,  just  the  other  day,  March  3,  at  the  age 
of  eighty-one,  dropped  his  ''Pilgrim"  staff  and 
went  home.  He  had  long  walked  with  God.  He 
had  loved  mankind.  Those  who  had  known  him 
76 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  77 

longest  and  best  had  been  most  impressed  with 
the  way  in  which  he  had  lived  the  beatitudes,  and 
had  wrought  them  into  his  character.  The  other 
of  the  two,  past  ninety,  is,  happily,  with  us  still, 
the  impersonated  benediction  that  he  has  ever 
been. 

As  to  Dr.  Eoy,  greatly  fortunate  was  the  life 
career  which  it  was  given  him  to  enact.  There 
was  in  it  an  unselfishness  of  devotion  that  was 
almost  heroical,  that  was  more  than  chivalric; 
that  was  in  its  measure  peculiarly  Christlike,  in 
its  prompt  championship  of  the  neediest  and  most 
outcast.  And,  what  an  age  of  the  world  it  was 
for  a  man  of  his  mold  and  spirit,  with  his  vision 
and  faculty,  to  have  his  life-work  given  him,  and 
that,  in  closest  sympathy  with  so  many  of  the 
noblest  men  and  women  of  that  great  epoch  in 
our  national  history. 

Here  was  indeed  the  **  opening  of  a  new  door 
in  heaven."  And,  how  mightily  it  did  appeal  to 
this  still  comparatively  youthful  Roy,  and  to  other 
men  and  women  who,  in  the  time  of  it,  ^^hnew 
the  time,"  and  so  gloriously,  in  the  name  of  the 
Master,  rose  up  to  meet  the  august  responsibility. 

As  the  young  pastor  of  the  recently  organized 
Pljrmouth  Church,  this  city,  fifty  years  ago,  when 
Chicago  was  at  about  its  most  acutely  vital,  forma- 
tive and  aggressive  stage  of  evolution,  Roy  had 
begun  to  discover  himself,  and  find  his  mission. 


78  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

Nor  could  any  Chicagoan  have  been  more  alive 
to  the  peculiar  genius  alike  of  the  place  and  the 
hour.  You  will  hear  men  today,  now  advanced 
in  life,  tell  with  emotion  how  when  they  were 
boys,  his  striking  and  impressive  personality 
crossed  their  path  and  his  convincing  words  smote 
and  wakened  their  souls  to  the  great  and  happy 
decision. 

It  was  natural  that,  as  early  as  1860,  Mr.  Roy 
was  seen  to  be  the  man  to  represent  the  American 
Missionary  Association  in  Chicago  in  its  care  of 
its  then  seventy  or  more  ** white"  mission 
churches — Anti-Slavery  churches  they  were — in 
various  parts  of  the  Interior,  which  this  Freedom- 
loving  society  was  aiding. 

And  it  was  equally  natural,  some  two  years 
later,  when  national  conditions  had  changed  and 
the  American  Home  Missionary  Society  had  come 
out  onto  the  same  basis  as  to  any  complicity  with 
Slavery,  that  he  should  be  called  to  the  superin- 
tendency,  at  Chicago,  of  this  Society  in  its  vast 
pioneering  home-mission  work  in  this  region;  the 
work  to  which,  with  such  magnificent  devotion  and 
wisdom  the  next  following  eighteen  years  of  his 
life  were  given.  Nor  less  natural  and  befitting 
was  it  that,  then,  Dr.  Roy  should  be  again  called 
to  the  work  of  the  "A.  M.  A.,"  in  its  broad- 
visioned  and  peculiarly  Christ-like  enterprise  on 
behalf  of  the  millions  of  the  enfranchised  colored 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  79 

people  in  the  South.  To  this  cause,  so  congenial 
to  his  great  and  loving  heart,  the  remaining 
nearly  thirty  years  of  his  life  were  completely 
consecrated.  No  one  who  has  seen  Dr.  Eoy  as  he 
used  to  come  before  great  audiences  to  plead  for 
**ilf«/  People" — as  he  used  gloriously  to  call 
them — can  forget  how  noble  was  his  aspect  and 
bearing;  wide  of  brow,  deep-chested,  broad- 
shouldered,  tall  and  straight,  captivating  and 
gripping  sympathetic  attention  from  the  start. 
Dr.  Roy  had  a  fine  physical  basis  for  his  arduous 
life-work.  Nothing  seemed  to  tire  him.  A  happy 
faculty  for  sleep  he  had  whenever  or  wherever  the 
time  for  it  came.  His  temperamental  forces  and 
aptitudes  were  happily  consorted.  Unfailing 
sanity  of  perception  and  judgment  went  with  his 
big,  strong  and  tender  heart.  And  there  was 
equally  the  aspect  of  power  and  of  gentleness. 
While  he  had  a  rare  faculty  for  love  and  friend- 
ship, his  friendship  was  never  of  the  narrowing 
kind  of  a  merely  seclusive  intimacy.  It  was  too 
large  and  open  and  generous  for  that.  What  his 
behavior  toward  an  enemy  might  have  been  was 
never  in  evidence;  it  is  doubtful  if  he  ever  had 
one.  To  speak  of  him  as  possessed  with  the 
'* enthusiasm  of  humanity"  would  but  vaguely 
express  the  fact.  To  his  mind  and  heart,  humanity 
was  made  up  of  individualized  personalities,  each 
with  its  own  infinitely  interesting  liabilities  and 


80  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

possibilities.  So  it  was  the  most  natural  thing  in 
the  world  for  him  to  be,  all  through  life,  and  that 
on  a  large  scale  of  publicity,  the  champion  of  a 
majestic  cause.  And  what  a  clientele  it  was  that 
rose  up  before  his  vision  as  he  went  forth,  all 
over  the  land,  pleading,  in  the  Master's  name, 
for  *' My  People." 

Dr.  Roy  had  need  to  be  an  educator,  as  well  as 
an  advocate.  The  appropriate  education  of  the 
millions  of  colored  people  in  fitting  them  for  the 
all-round  duties  and  privileges  of  American  citi- 
zenship was  a  task  which  called  for  a  high  order 
of  constructive  educational  genius.  At  this  point 
his  large  and  humane  vision  rose  conspicuously 
to  the  occasion.  If  the  work  began  with  that 
pathetic  hunger  for  the  spelling-book  and  the 
Bible,  soon  enough  the  educational  scope  had  to 
widen  out  into  a  whole  horizon  of  individual, 
domestic,  industrial,  civic,  and  social  life. 

One  other  notable  and  beautiful  feature  in  Dr. 
Roy's  nature  and  character  should  be  named.  It 
was  that  which  came  out,  with  immense  impres- 
siveness,  in  his  appreciation  of  the  meaning,  the 
mystery  and  power,  of  the  so-called  ''Slave 
Music."  For  him  its  words,  thought,  imagery, 
sentiment,  aspiration,  hope,  agony  and  joy,  melody 
and  tone,  all  touched  and  transfigured  with  a  sort 
of  infiniteness  of  meaning  in  the  light  of  the  Face 
of  Jesus  Christ.    Nor  could  he  ever  be  insensible 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  81 

as  he  remembered  how  often,  in  lowliest  Negro 
cabins,  as  the  last  low  breath  of  the  dying  was 
*' burdened  with  His  Name,"  the  very  "door  in 
heaven"  seemed  to  open  as  the  inner  ear  caught 
echoes  of  the  mystic  strains: 

''Swing  low,  sweet  chariot, 
Coming  for  to  carry  me  home!" 

But  why  say  all  this  about  him,  here  and  now? 
He  needs  no  tribute  from  us.  Had  we  thought  to 
say  some  things  before  he  ''fell  to  sleep,"  that 
might  have  been  of  some  use  to  him.  But  now 
already  the  Master's  plaudit  has  transfigured  his 
experience  with  the  joy  ineffable,  unending. 

This,  however,  is  the  reason:  We  are  not 
indulging  in  mere  reminiscence.  We  are  thinking 
of  the  no  less  fateful  problems  of  today,  of  our 
day,  that  it  is  for  us  now  to  look  in  the  face  and 
meet.  For  what  surer  way  to  waken  our  own 
higher  sense  of  divine  privilege,  in  face  of  con- 
ditions as  we  now  see  them,  than  by  reminding 
ourselves  of  such  a  man  as  he,  and  such  other 
men  of  that  time,  who  also  knew  their  time,  and 
who,  likewise  knew,  in  the  time  of  it,  what  to  do 
about  it — as  Carpenter  and  Peet  and  Savage  and 
Humphrey,  Patton  and  Goodwin,  Helmer  and 
Noble,  and  Fisk  and  Bartlett  and  Boardman  and 
Curtiss,  and  Gates  and  Hammond  and  Blatch- 
ford  and  Bradley  and  Green  and  Hollister,  as  well 


82  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

as  Moody  and  Bliss,  and  others  of  kindred  spirit, 
whose  several  lives  have  been  lived  into  the 
enduring  and  better  life  of  our  city  and  the 
country. 

Nor,  finally,  let  anyone  imagine  that,  right  here 
and  now,  the  day  for  the  men  and  women  of  the 
prophetic  insight  and  outlook  and  the  Christly 
temper,  is  past;  or  that  similar  appeals  to  the 
younger  men  and  women  of  this  great  day  will 
find  them  insensate.  As  Colonel  Hammond  used 
to  say,  there  is  an  '  *  everlasting  emergency. ' '  The 
world,  we  may  be  sure,  is  not  growing  smaller  or 
less  interesting.  Its  crises,  ever  larger,  are 
crowding  into  destiny  in  ever  swifter  succession, 
and  a  yet  more  tremendous  fatefulness.  And — 
lest  we  forget  it — today,  every  day,  is,  as  it  were, 
"a  section  of  the  day  of  Judgment"  in  the  momen- 
tousness  of  its  issues. 

We  Protestants  speak  of  two  sacraments; 
Catholics  speak  of  seven;  the  fact  is,  there  are 
many.  And  some  lives  there  are,  and  his  was  one 
of  them,  which  always  waken  the  sense,  alike 
awesome  and  winsome,  of  the  "Real  Presence" 
indeed. 

With  perfect  clarity  of  perception,  as  though 
it  were  a  spiritual  instinct  with  him,  he  knew  his 
own  time,  and  understood  how  he  was  to  serve 
his  own  generation.  Thus  there  was  for  him 
unity  and  no  waste,  power,  profound  felicity,  a 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  83 

high  order  of  moral  beauty  in  the  total  outcome, 
and  a  pervasive,  illimitable  beneficence,  which, 
like  the  box  of  ointment  broken  at  the  Master's 
feet,  went  forth  to  ''fill  all  the  house." 

Joseph  E.  Roy,  the  youth,  the  man,  the  preacher, 
the  utterly  true-hearted  friend,  the  advocate  and 
champion,  the  administrator,  the  born  journalist, 
the  educator  on  a  national  scale,  the  graciously 
inspired  Pilgrim  Greatheart,  not  for  the  colored 
race  only  but  for  all  the  depressed  races,  the 
after-glow  of  the  *'day"  he  served  so  bravely 
and  well  must  linger  ever  in  the  loving  memory 
of  us  all. 


A  MAN  AMONG  HIS  FELLOWMEN. 

A  MINUTE,  PREPARED  BY  REV.  A.  N.  HITCHCOCK,  PH.  D,. 

SECRETARY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  BOARD,  ADOPTED 

BY  THE  CHICAGO   CONGREGATIONAL  CLUB, 

MONDAY  EVENING,  MARCH  16,  1908. 


Since  our  last  meeting  one  has  fallen  from 
our  ranks  upon  whose  memory  we  shall  long  and 
fondly  linger.  Seldom  indeed,  during  the  quarter 
century  that  has  elapsed  since  the  organization  of 
this  club,  has  any  event  occurred  which  has 
brought  so  profound  sorrow,  such  a  sense  of  per- 
sonal lonesomeness,  now  that  he  is  gone  from  us, 
as  has  the  departure  of  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  E.  Roy. 
Graduating  from  Knox  College,  Galesburg,  in 
1848,  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-one;  returning 
to  Illinois  five  years  later,  after  graduating  from 
Union  Theological  Seminary ;  finding  in  this  state 
of  his  adoption,  in  the  quiet  country  town  of 
Farmington,  the  well-chosen  companion  of  his 
life;  twice  serving  as  a  pastor,  the  first  time,  as 
was  fitting,  a  country  church  in  Brimfield,  and 
then,  for  a  longer  period,  Plymouth  Church,  Chi- 

84 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY  .  85 

cago;  then  from  1860  to  1868,  during  the  trou- 
blous times  of  our  Civil  War  and  the  days  of  re- 
construction, traveling  and  toiling  night  and  day 
in  the  work  of  the  Home  Missionary  Society ;  and 
finally  finding  his  greatest  and  crowning  service, 
during  a  long  period  of  forty  years,  in  the  work 
of  the  American  Missionary  Association,  first  as 
superintendent  in  the  South  and  then  as  district 
secretary  in  Chicago — the  life  and  career  of  this 
man  of  God  have  been  interbraided  to  an  extraor- 
dinary degree  into  the  growing  life  of  this  broad 
interior.  We  who  assemble  here  tonight,  bereaved 
and  lonely  because  he  is  no  longer  with  us,  can- 
not refrain  from  bringing,  in  memory  of  him,  a 
sincere  tribute  of  love  and  honor.  Dr.  Eoy  was 
a  man  in  whom  faults,  if  he  had  any,  were  rare, 
and  whose  virtues  were  many.  Courteous,  but 
not  compromising,  his  was  a  voice  which  always 
rang  true.  Abounding  in  hope  and  good  cheer, 
having  a  courage  which  never  faltered,  a  sympa- 
thy for  the  lowly  which  gave  little  heed  to  a 
superficial  conventionalism,  with  a  rugged  man- 
liness which  however  failed  not  to  observe  the 
requirements  of  true  gentility,  and  withal  that 
charm  of  a  noble  character  which  forever  re- 
frained from  speaking  ill  of  others,  he  was,  all 
in  all,  one  of  God's  noblemen  who  has  left  the 
world  poorer  by  his  departure.  We  may  not  soon 
look  upon  his  like  again.    May  something  of  his 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 


mantle  fall  upon  ns  who  wait  a  little  longer,  until 
for  us,  as  already  for  him,  the  lengthening  shad- 
ows shall  fade  into  that  day  whose  sun  shall 
never  set. 


AS  HOME  MISSIONAEY  SUPERINTENDENT 

TEIBUTE  OF  THE  ILLINOIS  HOME  MISSIONAEY  SOCIETY 
BY  REV.   GEO.   T.   m'COLLUM,   SUPERINTENDENT. 


Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  E.  Roy  was  so  long  identified 
with  the  work  of  the  American  Missionary  Asso- 
ciation that  not  every  one  remembers  his  eighteen 
years  of  faithful  service  in  the  home  missions  in 
Illinois  and  adjacent  states.  A  portion  of  this  work 
was  performed  under  the  American  Missionary 
Association,  whose  field  at  that  time  included 
churches  in  this  district,  and  a  part  of  it  also 
under  the  American  Home  Missionary  Society. 
Out  of  these  early  activities  grew  the  Illinois 
Home  Missionary  Society;  and  its  present  field 
of  labor  and  plan  of  service  directly  inherits  the 
fruit  of  Dr.  Roy's  toil.  The  officers  of  the  Illinois 
Home  Missionary  Society  gratefully  record  their 
high  and  lasting  appreciation  of  these  years  of 
foundation  laying  upon  which  we  now  are  build- 
ing. We  place  on  record  also  our  sense  of  in- 
debtedness to  the  personality  and  the  ideals  of 
this  faithful  servant  of  God  in  these  years  of  in- 

87 


88  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

timate  association  during  which,  in  separate  but 
adjacent  offices,  his  work  and  ours  moved  side  by- 
side.  We  shall  miss  him  almost  as  deeply  as  if 
he  had  continued  all  these  years  his  official  rela- 
tions with  the  work  of  home  missions  in  Illinois. 
On  behalf  of  this  society  and  of  the  churches 
which  he  helped  to  found  and  which  he  loved 
throughout  the  threescore  years  and  ten  since 
first  he  came  to  these  prairies,  we  inscribe  this 
grateful  tribute  to  his  imperishable  memory. 


A  PATRIOT  AND  THE  SON  OF  PATRIOTS. 


The  Oak  Park  Chapter  of  the  Sons  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution,  to  which  Dr.  Roy  belonged,  sent 
to  the  family  the  customary  memorial,  duly  en- 
grossed, expressing  in  the  usual  form  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  chapter.  As  this  was  an  organiza- 
tion in  which  Dr.  Roy  had  great  interest,  and  as 
his  own  account  of  his  revolutionary  descent  is 
both  interesting  and  contains  information  of 
value  concerning  the  family  from  which  he 
sprang,  the  account  is  here  reproduced  as  he  pre- 
pared it  for  the  files  of  the  local  chapter : 

*'My  ancestry  was  of  French  Huguenot  stock. 
Harried  out  of  France  by  persecution,  about  1670 
they  fled  to  Scotland  for  safety.  In  1711  my 
great-great-grandfather,  Joseph  Roy,  came  over 
from  Scotland,  bringing  his  wife  and  his  first- 
born, a  son,  John.  They  remained  in  Boston 
eleven  years  before  removing  to  New  Jersey.  We, 
their  descendants,  came  that  near  being  Boston 
Yankees.  Settling  in  Woodbridge,  N.  J.,  they  re- 
mained there  twenty  years  and  then  removed  to 


90  JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY 

Basking  Ridge  in  that  state,  which  became  the 
home  of  the  tribe,  thence  to  scatter  westward. 

**As  Huguenots  they  were  the  Puritans  of 
France,  and  so  they  naturally  fell  in  with  the 
English  Puritans  and  Covenanters  of  this  country 
in  their  aspirations  for  liberty  and  American  in- 
dependence. The  immigrant  boy,  John,  became, 
as  the  record  says,  a  member  of  the  council  of  the 
province  of  New  Jersey  from  Somerset  county, 
and  the  governor,  with  the  confirmation  of  the 
council,  appointed  him  justice  of  the  peace  for  the 
same  county,  and  he  was  found  upon  many  com- 
mittees of  the  colonial  body.  I  have  transmitted 
to  my  son  Joseph  an  original  warrant  issued  in 
1768  by  Justice  Roy  in  the  name  of  his  majesty 
George  III.  of  England.  This  'Judge  Roy,'  as 
he  was  called  in  local  parlance,  became  the  father 
of  five  sons.  Fifty-five  years  ago  in  New  Jersey 
a  Dr.  Doty  of  Basking  Ridge,  a  relative  of  the 
Roys,  who  must  have  been  at  that  time  70  years 
old,  gave  me  the  tradition  that  all  of  the  five  sons 
of  the  justice  went  into  the  Revolution. 

*'But,  leaving  the  tradition  to  go  for  its  historic 
reliability,  we  have  absolute  proof  that  one  of 
Judge  Roy's  sons  was  in  the  Revolutionary  serv- 
ice, and  that  one  was  Joseph  Roy,  my  great- 
grandfather. 

"Under  date  of  February  2,  1905,  I  have  the 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  KOY  91 

certificate  of  the  military  secretary  of  the  war  de- 
partment at  Washington  as  follows : 

**  *It  is  shown  by  the  records  of  this  office  that 
one  Joseph  Roy  served  as  a  private  in  Captain 
Goselin's  company  of  Colonel  Moses  Hazen's  reg- 
iment of  Continental  troops,  Revolutionary  war. 
He  enlisted  October  15,  1781,  to  serve  during  the 
war,  and  was  discharged  from  the  service  by  the 
commander-in-chief  June  21,  1783,  by  reason  of 
the  close  of  the  war.  *'  *F.  C.  Quick, 

''  'The  Military  Secretary.' 

"If  permitted  I  would  like  to  add  another  tra- 
ditional incident,  that  of  my  great-grandfather 
on  my  mother's  side. 

**  Joseph  Davis,  of  Welsh  extraction,  living  at 
Connecticut  Farms,  N.  J.,  was  plowing  when  Brit- 
ish soldiers,  scouring  the  neighborhood,  entered 
his  father's  house  and  stole  his  wedding  suit, 
which  was  awaiting  his  marriage.  On  the  next 
day,  leaving  his  plow,  he  went  into  New  York  and 
enlisted.  Soon  he  was  taken  prisoner  and  lan- 
guished awhile  in  New  York's  Black  Hole.  When 
he  was  discharged  by  the  close  of  the  war  he  went 
home  with  his  Continental  money,  which  was  'not 
worth  a  continental, '  and  with  a  new  blanket.  His 
fiancee,  who  had  waited  for  him  to  get  through 
the  service,  was  ready  to  wait  still  longer  to  have 
the  blanket  cut  and  made  into  a  coat,  in  which 
he  was  married ! 


92  JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY 

**The  meeting  house  of  that  patriotic  settle- 
ment, Connecticut  Farms,  was  burned  as  the 
British  passed  along.  The  pastor's  wife,  holding 
a  babe  in  her  arms,  was  shot  dead  through  the 
breast  and  then  the  parsonage  was  burned.  At 
the  next  village,  Springfield,  as  the  patriots  were 
falling  short  of  wadding,  the  pastor  rushed  into 
his  church  and  brought  out  an  armful  of  hymn- 
books  and  handing  them  over  to  the  patriots, 
shouted  out,  'There,  boys,  give  them  Watts.* 

*  *  My  wife,  in  becoming  a  Daughter  of  the  Eevo- 
lution,  claimed  as  entitling  her  to  membership : 

''First.  The  distinguished  civil  service  ren- 
dered by  her  grandfather,  Daniel  Newcomb  of 
Keene,  N.  H.,  as  one  of  the  supreme  judges  of 
that  state,  as  a  promoter  of  education  and  as  a 
citizen  given  to  the  extension  of  social  betterment. 

"Second.  The  fact  that  her  great-grandfather, 
Jonathan  Newcomb,  was  in  the  old  French  war 
and  was  in  the  battle  of  Ticonderoga. 

"Third.  The  fact  that  her  other  grandfather, 
Reuben  Hatch,  with  the  office  of  major,  was  in  the 
service  around  Boston  defending  its  port,  surviv- 
ing the  close  of  the  war." 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY  93 

The  memorial  of  the  Society  is  as  follows : 

In  memory  of 

JOSEPH  EDWIN  ROY, 

BoKN  IN  Martinsburg,  Ohio,  February  7,  1827, 

Died  in  Oak  Park,  III.,  March  3,  1908. 

A  member  of 
The  Sons  of  the  American  Eevolution 
by  virtue  of  lineal  descent  from  Joseph  Roy,  born 
in  Woodbridge,  New  Jersey,  December  16,  1741, 
and  died  in  the  year  1823,  and  who  aided  in  estab- 
lishing the  independence  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  the  capacity  of  private  in  Captain 
Gosling's  Company  of  Moses  Hayden's  Regiment 
of  Continental  troops  from  New  Jersey. 

This  Memorial  of  Respect 

was  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Managers  on  the 
twenty-seventh  day  of  March,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  nineteen  hundred  and  eight,  and  of  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States  the  one  hundred 
and  thirty-second. 

Horace  E.  Horton,  President. 

John  D.  Vandercook,  Secretary. 


A  TRIBUTE  FROM  THE  SOUTHLAND. 

ADOPTED    BY    THE    CONGREGATIONAL    ASSOCIATION    OF 
ALABAMA. 


Among  many  loving  tributes  from  the  South  he 
loved,  the  following  may  stand  as  evidence  of  the 
love  which  he  inspired : 

Whereas,  We  have  heard  with  profound  sorrow 
of  the  death  of  Rev.  Joseph  E.  Roy,  D.D.,  for 
many  years  field  secretary  of  the  Congregational 
Home  Missionary  Society,  and  for  forty  years 
connected  with  the  American  Missionary  Associa- 
tion; therefore. 

Resolved,  That  we,  the  Congregational  Churches 
of  Alabama,  by  the  pastors  and  delegates  assem- 
bled at  Talladega,  in  the  thirty-second  annual  ses- 
sion of  the  Congregational  Association  of  Ala- 
bama, do  hereby  affirm  our  high  esteem  for  the 
service  of  Rr.  Roy  as  rendered  to  the  churches  of 
our  faith  in  the  South,  and  our  deep  sense  of  loss 
in  his  death.  As  field  secretary  of  the  American 
Missionary  Association  for  many  years  he  greatly 
endeared  himself  to  our  struggling  churches  by  his 
sympathy  and  cordial  appreciation  of  our  efforts, 

94 


JOSEPH  EDWIN  EOY    (  95 

and  by  the  inspiring  and  eloquent  words  of  en- 
couragement he  always  gave  us.  The  loving  trib- 
utes to  which  we  have  this  day  been  listening  from 
many  speakers  have  proved  how  inspiring  his  life 
and  words  have  been  to  all  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact.  "We  desire  therefore  to  place  upon  record 
our  high  appreciation  of  his  noble  character,  and 
the  great  worth  and  ability  and  abiding  influence 
of  his  arduous  labors  among  us. 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  our  heartfelt  sympa- 
thy to  the  surviving  relatives  in  this  bereavement ; 
yet  rejoice  with  them  and  with  him  in  the  ever 
living,  ever  growing  results  of  his  work  below,  and 
in  the  certainty  of  the  glorious  reward  into  which 
he  has  triumphantly  entered  above. 

Resolved,  That  this  expression  of  our  sympathy 
and  appreciation  be  entered  upon  our  minutes, 
and  a  copy  duly  signed  by  our  Moderator  and 
Scribe  be  forwarded  with  deepest  respect  to  the 
widow  of  our  dearly  beloved,  highly  honored  and 
now  gloriously  rewarded  Secretary,  Rev.  Joseph 
E.  Roy,  D.D. 

Adopted  in  the  meeting  of  the  Congregational 
Association  of  Alabama  this  30th  day  of  March, 
1908,  at  Talladega,  Ala. 

Edward  E.  Scott,  Moderator. 
James  M.  Morse,  Scribe. 


OTHER   TRIBUTES. 


The  daily  newspapers  of  Chicago,  the  local 
newspapers  of  Oak  Park,  the  religious  papers  of 
his  own  and  other  denominations,  and  the  maga- 
zines of  the  several  missionary  societies  contained 
tributes  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Roy.  In  addition 
to  these  many  scores  of  letters  were  received,  con- 
taining words  of  discriminating  and  cordial  ap- 
preciation from  his  friends  in  the  ministry  and 
from  others  in  many  walks  of  life.  Among  them 
all  none  are  more  prized  than  those  from  the 
Southland,  and  from  the  colored  people,  who  knew 
how  well  he  had  wrought  for  them  and  how  great 
was  his  love. 

To  quote  from  these  letters  and  newspaper  arti- 
ticles  is  impracticable  in  so  small  a  volume  as  this, 
and  some  of  them  are  of  too  personal  a  nature 
for  publication.  While  a  selection  might  have 
been  made,  it  has  been  deemed  better  that  this 
booklet  should  contain  only  such  tributes  as  were 
paid  him  at  his  funeral,  or  adopted  by  represent- 
ative bodies.  All  these  tributes,  however,  are 
cherished  by  the  family,  and  of  them  this  grateful 
acknowledgment  is  made. 

96 


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